Short biography
Dmitri Petrov (1947-2014), PhD in Physics and Mathematics (1976), Doctor of Science in Physics and Mathematics (1987), both from the Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Novosibirsk, Russia. He was Senior Researcher and Head of Laboratory of the Institute of Semiconductor Physics and Professor of the Novosibirsk University, Russia. 1993-2002 -Visiting Professor at the Brazilian University and the University Polytechnic of Catalonia. Since 2002, ICREA Research Professor and Group Leader at ICFO - The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona. Research interests include acousto-optic interaction and propagation optical waves with phase dislocations in nonlinear media such as cold atoms. At present, this is the application of optical techniques for the biological mechano-chemistry, i.e., for the study of biophysical and biochemical processes in single living cells and molecules in the presence of mechanical loads. Research interests
A strongly focused beam of light can be used as "optical tweezers" in micro-world studies for trapping and manipulating of tiny objects as colloidal particles, living cells and bacteria. At ICFO I combine this optical technique with another powerful tool-Raman spectroscopy-in order to get previously inaccessible information about biochemical reactions of living cells in suspension on such changes in environmental conditions like presence of drugs or mechanical deformations. To achieve this aim, I am developing the combination of several optical techniques (optical trapping, photonic force microscopy, & nanoplasmonics). The application of the photonic force microscopy in the study of noise-assisted effects in physics and biophysics is also a part of my studies. In collaboration with several biomedical centers in Barcelona we study brain diseases applying Raman spectroscopy to ex-vivo retina, and we use this type of spectroscopy for the validation of possible pathways of metastasis. Key words
Optical manipulation, Raman spectroscopy, Brownian motion, living cells, DNA