vraicu@uwm.edu
(414) 229-4969
KIRC 3063

Principal Investigator
Physics

Professor Valerica (Vali) Raicu holds his PhD from the University of Bucharest and completed his postdoctoral work at the Kochi Medical School and University of Toronto.  Professor Raicu joined UWM’s Department of Physics in 2004 and was the Chair of the department from 2012 to 2015.  In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor in UWM’s Department of Biological Sciences and Director of the UWM-Small Businesses Collaboratory. Together with members of his research group, Professor Raicu has designed, built and tested a two-photon microscope with spectral resolution and single-molecule-level sensitivity (OptiMiS), a patented technology licensed to Aurora Spectral Technologies.  Using this technology, the Raicu lab has developed a novel theoretical framework for analysis of FRET signals from living cells,and molecular methods for tagging proteins of interest with variants of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), and, together with collaborators around the world, determined the association stoichiometry and quaternary structure of several membrane receptors and transporters in living cells, including G protein-couple receptors.