Dorleta Jiménez de Aberasturi is an Ikerbasque Research Fellow leading the Hybrid Biofunctional Materials group at CIC biomaGUNE. Graduated in Environmental Sciences (BSc). She received a joint PhD between the Philipps University of Marburg and the University of the Basque Country in 2013, focused on the synthesis of colloidal inorganic nanoparticles, as well as their surface functionalization with organic molecules, forming hybrid materials with improved properties for environmental and bio-applications. This combination of hybrid materials has since then been a key aspect in the various projects that she has worked in. During 2011, 2012 and 2013 she moved to the group of Prof. Wolfgang J. Parak (co-supervisor of her PhD thesis), investigating the biological applications of nanomaterials. The coverage of NPs with amphiphilic ligands containing different functionalities or further functionalization with fluorophores or biomolecules was essential to study NP-cell interactions. Although she was offered a 3 year, full-time, research position in 2013 in the group of Prof. Parak, in 2014 she decided to join the BioNanoPlasmonics Group led by Prof. Luis Liz-Marzán, in order to further her knowledge in the field of NP design. As a postdoc in the group, she acquired a broad expertise in the design, synthesis, functionalization, and characterization of nanostructured materials, mainly based on polymer-plasmonic nanoparticle composite materials for biosensing and bioimaging. During 2016, she received a Marie Curie fellowship to work for 3.5 months and again in 2017 for 10 days at the University of Michigan, (USA). In 2017 she was awarded the Juan de la Cierva Incorporation fellow position. In 2018 she did a short stay at the ETH Zürich. In 2019 she obtained an Ikerbasque research fellow allowing further 5 years of research in the field of hybrid materials for bio-applications. During these most recent years she has focused her interests on the design of 3D cell models. She obtained a junior-track position at CIC biomaGUNE, and since 2023 she is principal investigator of the group "Hybrid Biofunctional Materials". During her career, she has published a great amount of papers in high impact journals such as Nat. Nanotech., ACS Nano, Small, J. Mater. Chem, Langmuir, Trends Biotechnol, Acc. Chem. Res. comments Chemical Society (h index 25 and more than 6900 citations). She has also contributed to 4 book chapters. She regularly attends national and international conferences. She has participated in more than 24 research projects funded nationally and internationally by organizations such as the European Union (EU), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the governments of Spain and Euskadi, and she is principal investigator in some of them, such as the State Research Agency projects (RETOS #PID2019-108854RA-100 and PID2022-143248OB-I00), (Research Consolidation #CNS2022-135941) or local projects from the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa (#2022-CIEN-000086-01) among others. She has also collaborated as a researcher in two ERC Advanced Grant (PLASMAQUO, # 267867 and 4DbioSERS # ERC-AdG-2017), passed to interview in ERC Starting grant 2021. She was recently awarded with the Ramon y Cajal Spanish grant (RYC2022-037249-I). In addition, She worked as lecturer in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry (UPV/EHU) in 2016 and since 2020 she is an associate professor at the Public University of Navarre (UPNA). She has mentored several master and PhD students at Philipps University of Marburg, at CIC biomaGUNE and at the University of the Basque Country. Currently she is co-director of the doctoral theses of seven PhD students, a Postdoc a Master Student and recently two students defended their doctoral thesis obtaining the distinction of Excellent cum laude under her direction. Also, she actively collaborates in science outreach activities such as in the organization of the Pint of Science festival (2017-2024) and she is a member of the Equality committee of CIC biomaGUNE.