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Associate Professor, Chemistry Department

Bogdan Dragnea joined the faculty at Indiana University in 2001 after post-doctoral studies in near-field optics with Stephen Leone, at JILA., Boulder, Colorado, USA. Dragnea holds a PhD in Physics from Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France (advisor: Bernard Bourguignon, Laboratoire de Photophysique Moléculaire du C.N.R.S.).

Besides bio-inspired materials and self-assembly, his research interests include nanophotonics, biophysics, and thermodynamics of small systems. Dragnea is an Adjunct Professor in the Physics Department, a member of the Horia Hulubei Physics Foundation (Bucharest, Romania), and a member of the advisory boards of two nanotechnology journals.

Research

Research activities in our group can be divided into two broad categories:

• Development and applications of functional, self-assembled, bioinspired anosystems.Nanophotonic applications to chemical measurements.
• Nanophotonic applications to chemical measurements.

Our research program is guided by the idea that a fertile scientific ground and a fascinating number of questions continue to await exploration at the interface between core sciences. For example, general physical principles dictate how viruses self-assemble from proteins and nucleic acids into a multifunctional biological machine . However, to elucidate the mechanisms of molecular self-assembly and those of the intra or extra- cellular virus transit new instrumentation is required . Another question is whether one could use the principles of biological assembly to make novel materials with bulk physical or chemical properties never seen before. Answering these questions may have profound societal impact through new cures or diagnostics of disease, better predictions of environmental changes, and better ways of energy management.

 

A virus-like particle self-assembled into a symmetric protein cage (transparent) encapsulating a functionalized gold nanocore. The complex has a diameter of 280 Å and has a tunable architecture.

 

 

 

Atomic force micrograph of an Agrobacterium colony used as a laboratory system for brome mosaic virus RNA replication.

Publications

"Self-assembly approaches to nanomaterial encapsulation in viral protein cages", S. Aniagyei, C. C. DuFort, C. Cheng Kao, B. Dragnea, J. Mater. Chem., 2008, 18, 3763-3774.

"Unnatural life", B. Dragnea, Nature Mat. 2008; 7: 102-104.

"Self-assembled Virus-like Particles with Magnetic Cores", Huang, X.; Bronstein, L. M.; Retrum, J.; Dufort, C.; Tsvetkova, I.; Aniagyei, S.; Stein, B.; Stucky, G.; McKenna, B.; Remmes, N.; Baxter, D.; Kao, C. C.; Dragnea, B., Nano Lett. 2007; 7, 2407-2416.

"Reactivity-Based Fluoride Detection: Evolving Design Principles for Spring-Loaded Turn-On Fluorescent Probes" Jiang, X.; Vieweger, M. C.; Bollinger, J. C.; Dragnea, B.; Lee, D. Org. Lett. 2007; 9, 3579-3582.

"Structure and Properties of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Encapsulated by Phospholipids with Poly(ethylene glycol) Tails", Shtykova, E. V.; Huang, X.; Remmes, N.; Baxter, D.; Stein, B.; Dragnea, B.; Svergun, D. I.; Bronstein, L. M., J. Phys. Chem. C. 2007; 111(49); 18078-18086.

"Core-like Particles of an Enveloped Animal Virus Can Self-Assemble Efficiently on Artificial Templates" Goicochea, N. L.; De, M.; Rotello, V. M.; Mukhopadhyay, S.; Dragnea, B. Nano Lett. 2007; 7, 2281-2290.

Influence of Iron Oleate Complex Structure on Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Formation Bronstein, L. M.; Huang, X.; Retrum, J.; Schmucker, A.; Pink, M.; Stein, B. D.; Dragnea, B., Chem. Mater. 2007; 19(15); 3624-3632.

"Optical field enhancement at cusps between adjacent nanoapertures", T.-D. Onuta, M. Waegele, W. L. Schaich, and B. Dragnea", Nano Lett. 2007, 7, 557-564.

"Core-controlled Polymorphism in Virus-like Particles", J. Sun, C. DuFort, M.-C. Daniel, A. Murali, C. Chen, K. Gopinath, B. Stein, M. De, V. M. Rotello, A. Holzenburg, C.., Kao, B. Dragnea, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci, 2007, 104: 1354-1359.

"Quantum Dot Encapsulation in Viral Capsids" Dixit, S. K.; Goicochea, N. L.; Daniel, M.-C.; Murali, A.; Bronstein, L.; De, M.; Stein, B.; Rotello, V. M.; Kao, C. C.; Dragnea, B. Nano Lett. 2006; 6(9); 1993-1999.

"Nanoparticle-Templated Assembly of Viral Protein Cages" Chen, C.; Daniel, M.-C.; Quinkert, Z. T.; De, M.; Stein, B.; Bowman, V. D.; Chipman, P. R.; Rotello, V. M.; Kao, C. C.; Dragnea, B., Nano Lett. 2006; 6(4); 611-615.

"Hybrid Polymer Particles with a Protective Shell: Synthesis, structure, and Templating", Chem. Mater, Bronstein, L. M.; Dixit, S.; Tomaszewski, J.; Stein, B.; Svergun, D. I.; Konarev, P. V.; Shtykova, E.; Werner-Zwanziger, U.; Dragnea, B., Chem. Mater. 2006; 18(9); 2418-2430.

"Spectroscopic studies and dynamics of the AppA blue-light receptor from Rb. Sphaeroides in solution and in the crystal", V. Dragnea, M. Waegele, S. Balascuta, C. Bauer, and B. Dragnea, Biochemistry 44, 15978-15985, 2005.

"Interaction between BMV Proteins and RNAs", K. Gopinath, B. Dragnea, and C. Kao, J. Virol., 79, 14222-14234, 2005.

"Submicrometer Resonant Cavity Surface Plasmon Sensors", D. Amarie, T.-D. Onuta, R. Potyrailo, J. K. Chung, W. L. Schaich, and B. Dragnea, J. Phys. Chem. B 109, 51515, 2005.

"Three-Dimensional Mapping of the Light Intensity Transmitted through Nanoapertures", D Amarie, N. D. Rawlinson, W. L. Schaich, B. Dragnea, S. C. Jacobson, Nano Lett. 5, 12227, 2005.

"Fluctuation correlation spectroscopy of near-field trapped nanoparticles", T.-D. Onuta, W. L. Schaich, B. Dragnea, Proceedings of SPIE vol. 5736 "Nanomanipulation with Light", 2005, 25-26.

"Viral Shell Packaging of Gold Particles", C. Chen, E.-S. Kwak, C. C. Kao, B. Dragnea, J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. (invited) 5(11), 1, 2005.

"Optical trapping with integrated near-field apertures", E-S Kwak, T.-D. Onuta, D. Amarie, R. Potyrailo, B. Stein, W. L. Schaich, B. Dragnea, J. Phys. Chem. B 108(36); 13607-13612, 2004.

"Chemical imaging with near-field optical microscopy", B. Dragnea, in the Dekker Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, J. A. Schwartz, C. Contescu, K. Putyera eds., Marcel Dekker, 2004.

"Field-induced interfacial properties of gold nanoparticles in AC microelectrophoretic experiments", K. D. Kloepper, T.-D. Onuta, D. Amarie, B. Dragnea, J. Phys. Chem. B, 108, 2547, 2004.

"Water vapor uptake in photolithographic polymers observed by infrared near-field scanning optical microscopy in a controlled environment", McDonough LA, Dragnea B, Preusser J, Leone SR, Hinsberg WD, J. Phys. Chem. B, 107, 4951-4954, 2003.

"Gold Nanoparticles as Spectroscopic Enhancers for In-vitro Studies of Single Viruses", Dragnea, B., Chen, C., Kwak, E-S, Stein, B., Kao, C. C., , J. Am. Chem. Soc., 125, 6374, 2003

"Near-field Surface Plasmon Excitation on Structured Gold Films", Nano Letters 3, 2003, B. Dragnea, J. M. Szarko, S. Kowarik, T. Weimann, J. Feldmann, S. R. Leone

"Growth of a SiC layer on Si(100) from adsorbed propene by laser melting", J Appl Phys 90, 449 (2001), Dragnea B, Boulmer J, Debarre D, Bourguignon, B.

"Chemical Mapping of Patterned Polymer Photoresists by Near-Field Infrared Microscopy", Applied Surface Science 175, 783 (2001), B. Dragnea, J. Preusser, J. M. Szarko, L. A. McDonough, S. R. Leone, W. D. Hinsberg

"Influence of adsorbates on UV pulsed laser melting of Si in ultra high vacuum", Applied Physics A 73, (2001), B. Dragnea, Jacques Boulmer, D. Débarre, B. Bourguignon

"Pattern characterization of deep-ultraviolet photoresists by near-field infrared microscopy", Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B 19, 142 (2001), B. Dragnea, J. M. Szarko, J. Preusser, S. R. Leone, W. D. Hinsberg

"Advances in Sub-micron Infrared Vibrational Band Chemical Imaging", International Reviews in Physical Chemistry 20, 59 (2001), B. Dragnea, S. R. Leone

"Transmission Near-field Scanning Microscope for Infrared Chemical Imaging" , Journal of Applied Physics 86, 2795 (1999), B. Dragnea, J. Preusser, W. Schade, W. Hinsberg, S. R. Leone

"Site selective probe of the desorption of CO from Pd(111) by sum frequency generation and Fourier transform IR: a comparison of thermal and laser desorption", Surface Science 440, 151 (1999), S. Carrez, B. Dragnea, W. Q. Zheng, H. Dubost, B. Bourguignon

"Photoinduced effects in UV laser melting of Si in UHV" , Physical Review Letters 82, 3085, (1999), B. Dragnea, B. Bourguignon

"Vibrational Spectroscopy of Imperfect CO/Pd(111) Surfaces Obtained by Adsorption between 150 and 230 K", Surface Science 418, 171 (1998), B. Bourguignon, S. Carrez, B. Dragnea, H. Dubost

"Laser induced annealing and engraving of silicon: Experiments and numerical simulations", Annales de Physique, 22, 229 (1997), B. Bourguignon, B. Dragnea, J. Boulmer, J. P. Budin, D. Debarre

"Desorption and Diffusion at Pulsed Laser Melted Surfaces: the case of Chlorine on Silicon " Physical Review B 55, 13904 (1997), B. Dragnea, J. Boulmer, J.-P. Budin, D. Débarre, B. Bourguignon

"Vibrational spectroscopy at interfaces by IR-vis sum-frequency generation using CLIO-FEL", Nuclear Instrumentation and Methods A 375 (1996) 657, A. Peremans, A. Tadjeddine, WQ Zengh, P. Guyot-Sionnest, P. Remy, G. Ryschenkow, M. Buck, Y. Caudano, LM Yu, PA Thiry, B. Bourguignon, H. Dubost, B. Dragnea, S. Carrez

"Laser Modifications of Si(100):Cl surfaces induced by surface melting: etching and cleaning", Surface Science 338 (1995) 94-110, B. Bourguignon, M. Stoica, B. Dragnea, S. Carrez, J. Boulmer, J;P. Budin, D. Débarre, A. Aliouchouche

"Laser Induced Photodeposition from ZnS colloid solutions", Applied Surface Science 86, p. 538 (1995), A.Peled, B. Dragnea, R. Alexandrescu, A. Andrei

"Substance Separation by the Action of a Pulsed IR Laser Irradiation on Gas Mixtures Flows through Metal Capillaries", Infrared Physics and Technology, vol. 35, No. 6, p. 757 (1994), R. Alexandrescu, B. Dragnea, I. Morjan, A. Andrei.

"Field Distribution Effects in Laser Driven Diffusion through Metal Capillaries", Infrared Physics and Technology, vol. 35, No. 6, p. 765 (1994), B. Dragnea

Awards

• "Aguirre-Basualdo" award for Sciences, Sorbonne (France), 1996
• SPIE scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering, 2000.

Highlights