Cristinel Miinea

  • Laboratory Manager/Instructor

Areas of Study

Education

  • BS, University of Bucharest, Romania
  • PhD, biochemistry, University of Houston
  • Postdoctoral fellow, Dartmouth School of Medicine

Biography

Cristinel Mîinea is Instructor/lab manager in the chemistry department. He came to the United States in 1995 with a BS degree at the University of Bucharest, Romania. He pursued his doctoral studies in biochemistry at the University of Houston while studying the impact of glucose-induced oxidative stress on arachidonic acid metabolism in Schwann cells affected by diabetic neuropathy.

After earning a doctorate, he focused his research interests on examining the signaling pathways leading to insulin-stimulated transduction of glucose transporter to cellular membrane in adipose cells as a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth School of Medicine (2002-2006).

After several research stints in biopharmaceutical companies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Mîinea returned to academia as adjunct faculty at Ursuline College (2015-2018).

In his new position at Oberlin College, he is focused on providing support to students in their quest of connecting practical lab skills to theoretical concepts and knowledge. This challenging activity is carried out in a collaborative effort with department faculty.

Mîinea and his wife, Liliana, who also is a chemist, are proud parents to one daughter. His family resides in Brecksville, Ohio. Together with his family, Mîinea enjoys traveling. Pushed by his daughter, he has recently rediscovered his leisure interest for aquariums and exotic fish.

Fall 2023

Structure and Reactivity in Chemistry — CHEM 101
Principles of Chemistry — CHEM 102

Spring 2024

Structure and Reactivity in Chemistry — CHEM 101
Principles of Chemistry — CHEM 102

News

The Virtual Lab

January 19, 2021

Virtual learning has blended seamlessly into the physical classroom this academic year, as professors and instructors have found interesting ways to combine the two platforms. For Oberlin College students enrolled in the Chemistry Principles course this spring, recorded experiments will help them perform lab analysis from their residence halls.