The research activity of Mª Isabel Rial Hermida started in 2010 when she was involved in the Dept. of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela as a MSc student following by a PhD student roll under the supervision of Profs. C. Alvarez-Lorenzo and A. Concheiro. During her MSc in R+D of medicines and her PhD, she gained knowledge on the development of drug delivery systems (DDS), with polymers classified as smart-materials. Several DDS were studied during this period as hydrogels, micro and nanoparticles, electrospun mats, micelles, films, etc, to obtain the best candidates for the controlled release of drugs or, in other cases, be scaffolds for tissue regeneration. Moreover, she had obtained experience in physicochemical characterization of the systems, through techniques as DSC, TGA, Rheology, SEM, TEM, Texturometer,etc. She also was trained in biological studies with different cells lines and primary cells, with the use of several techniques (ELISA, MTT, differentiation of cells, Confocal and Fluorescence microscopy, etc) as well as carried out bacterial assays to ensure the activity of the systems. The translational suitability of the studied biomaterials and the type of assays performed, covered fields as diverse as tissue engineering and cancer therapy. Also, Isabel spent 6 months during her PhD in the 3 B’s group in the School of Engineering at the Universidade do Minho under the supervision of Prof. J.F. Mano. In this international and multidisciplinary environment, she gained another point of view of the development of novel technologies and their use as platforms to prepare several biopolymeric systems, gained more expertise on surface chemistry. Isabel defended her PhD Thesis “Implantable polymeric systems for antimicrobial and antitumor therapy” (april 2016) graded with the qualification of “summa cum laude” with International Mention and granted with the PhD Extraordinary Award. During April-June 2016, she worked as a Postdoc researcher in the group of Alvarez-Lorenzo and Concheiro testing electrospun mats in a bioreactor, in collaboration with Prof. Mabel Loza. In November 2016, she was involved as a Postdoctoral researcher fellow in the group of Profs. C.P. McCoy and N.J. Irwin at the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University of Belfast, UK. Their “Bioactive Biomaterials and Infection Control group” is specialized in the design of triggered DDS, the development of infection-resistant biomaterials and the design of sensor technologies for drugs and biologically-relevant species and the verification of their activity against several bacteria species. Her incorporation in the group allowed Isabel to gain expertise on microbiological techniques and enforced her experience on chemical modification of polymers and synthesis of novel entities with antibacterial activity (Project “Infection-responsive, self-cleaning urinary catheters” funded by Northern Ireland Invest,EU funding). Besides technical development of the project, she made several contacts with companies to gain their interest in the technology, to support in a next step or for transferring it. The technology was presented in 2 big medical devices conferences (MedTec, Germany and MedTech Conference, CA, USA). Also, she was in charge of all the marketing stuff (website, flyers, merchandising) in order to attract funders. After this period, 3 grants were obtained and Isabel enjoyed one of them, funded by the Medical Research Council, UK. These projects may open a new paradigm to bring closer research in academy to companies and have a monetary impact and a real improve of public health. In October 2018, she was awarded with a Xunta de Galicia 3-years postdoctoral contract to enjoy 2 years in the COMPASS group at University of Aveiro to develop functionalized supramolecular systems. Overall, she published 12 papers in high impact factor international journals (10 in Q1) and 1 book chapter, resulting on a h-index 10.