Paul Balaure Catalin

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Paul Cătălin Balaure received his PhD in chemistry in 1996 from the Romanian Academy, "Costin D. Nenitzescu" Institute of Organic Chemistry in Bucharest, Scientific coordinator: Senior Research Scientist Dr. Eng. Petru Filip. His thesis entitled "Dimerization and ring opening reactions in benzocyclobutenic systems" deals with some fundamental theoretical aspects of organic chemistry such as anullenes aromaticity, stereochemical aspects of concerted ring opening reactions, torquoselectivity and so on. Sterocontrolled ring opening of appropriate substituted benzocyclobutenes, followed by intramolecular Diels-Alder cycloaddition of the intermediate o-xylylenes represents a convenient approach for construction of the steroidal skeleton which is strongly related with the next research topic of interest for Assoc Prof. Dr. Paul Cătălin Balaure, i.e. attempted syntheses to complex chemotherapeutic compounds with sterane or taxane carbon atom skeletons by heterodomino cyclization reactions mediated by palladium complexes.

Other addressed research problems focus on organic reaction mechanisms (especially ionic and radical oxidation reactions, cationic rearrangements catalyzed by aluminium chloride and by single electron transfer agents of the azulene type, cycloaddition and ring opening reactions) and on the synthesis of new bioactive compounds belonging to the classes of dibenzo[b,f]azepines, phenothiazines and sydnones.

In 2001, Dr. Paul Cătălin Balaure joined the Department of Organic Chemistry "Costin Nenitzescu" at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnologies, University Politehica of Bucharest. From this moment he extended his expertise by adding some new interdisciplinary research topics to his areas of interest: synthesis of core-shell-adsorption shell magnetic nanoparticles with interesting biomedical application such as biofilm development inhibition and improvement of antimicrobial activity of various currently used antibiotics; modified release pharmaceutical dosage forms based on molecularly imprinted silica networks; smart multifunctional drug nanocarriers able to respond to physico-chemical changes in their environment or to external stimuli; essential oils extraction, encapsulation, and pharmacological activity; synthesis of new heterocyclic derivatives able to lead by chemical or electrochemical polymerization to conducting polymers used in chemical sensors and biosensors; use of enzyme in electrochemical sensing of biological relevant molecules (dopamine, ascorbic acid) or of organic pollutants from environmental and food matrices (phenols). It is worth notice that these research fields are strongly related to the teaching activities of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Paul Cătălin Balaure: pharmaceutical technology, biochemistry, chemistry and technology of pesticides, environmental toxicology, food toxicology,

In 2007, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Paul Cătălin Balaure performed a research stage at Electroanalysis Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, under scientific supervision of Prof. Dr. Renato Seeber. On this occasion, he gained expertise and practical skills in the field of electroanalysis.

In these research fields, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Paul Cătălin Balaure has published 46 in extenso papers, 23 scientific papers as first author or reprint author in ISI journals and also presented over 40 communications at the national international conferences he attended.