Dan Nicolau

Academic title(s): 

Department Chair and Professor

Marika Zelenka Roy Chair in Bioengineering

Dan Nicolau
Contact Information
Email address: 
dan.nicolau [at] mcgill.ca
Phone: 
514.398.8261
Office: 
McConnell Engineering Building, Room 353
Degree(s): 

Ph.D. Polytechnical University at Bucharest, Romania
M.S. Academy of Economic Studies at Bucharest, Romania

Areas of interest: 
  • design and fabricate dynamic hybrid nanodevices comprising linear protein molecular motors working on semiconductor manufactured electro-mechanical devices;
  • design and fabricate ‘smart’ micro/nano-profiled and electrically-active surfaces that combinatorially probe the response of biomolecules for micro/nano-array applications;
  • study effective, non-denaturating technologies for immobilization of biomolecules in static (e.g. biosensors) and dynamic (e.g. microfluidics) biodevices;
  • study intelligent-like behaviour and algorithms used by microorganisms in their survival and search strategies, probed in microfabricated structures
Courses: 
  • BIEN 200: Introduction to Bioengineering
  • BIEN 390: Bioengineering Laboratory
  • BIEN 420: Biodevices Design for Diagnostics and Screening
  • BIEN 471: Bioengineering Research Project
  • BIEN 540: Information Storage and Processing in Biological Systems
Selected publications: 

Polymer surfaces properties control the function of heavy meromyosin in dynamic nanodevices.
Hanson, K.L., Fulga, F., Dobroiu, S., Solana, G., Kaspar, O., Tokarova, V., Nicolau, D.V.
Biosensors & Bioelectronics. 2017; 93, 305-314. DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2016.08.061

Parallel computation with molecular-motor-propelled agents in nanofabricated networks.
Nicolau, Jr. D.V., Lard, M., Korten, T. , van Delft, F.C.M.J.M., Persson, M. Bengtsson, E., Månsson, A., Diez, S. Linke, H., Nicolau, D.V.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2016; 113(10), 2591-25. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1510825113

Confinement of water droplets on rectangular micro/nano-arrayed surfaces.
Kašpar, O., Zhang, H., Tokárová, V., Boysen, R.I., Suñé, G.R., Borrise, X., Perez-Murano, F., Hearn, M.T.W., Nicolau, D.V.*
Lab on a Chip. 2016; 16(13), 2487-2493. DOI: 10.1039/c6lc00622a

Visit MEDLINE indexed publications for more.

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