Amaia ORBEA

I started my research career in 1991 as undergraduate student in the laboratory of Cytology and Histology of the Faculty of Sciences of the UPV/EHU. As a result of that training period, I published my first article in an international journal in 1996 on the use of changes in the lysosomal system of mussels as biomarker of environmental stress. – After completing the Degree in June 1994, I defended my Licenciature Thesis work in December 1994 on the use of peroxisome proliferation in mussels as biomarker of exposure to petroleum derivatives, obtaining the highest rating. – In October 1995 (until 1999) I get a predoctoral grant from the Basque Government and conducted the Thesis on peroxisome proliferation and antioxidant enzymes in aquatic organisms as biomarkers of organic pollutants. I performed research stays in the Univ of Heidelberg (Germany), CID-CSIC (Barcelona) and AZTI Foundation (Bizkaia). I defended the Thesis in January 2001 (Cum Laude) and I was incorporated as a part-time associate professor of Cell Biolog. Until February 2004, when became full-time professor, I combined teaching contracts with research contract funded from research projects. Between 2003 and 2007, my main research focused on the assessment of the effects of the Prestige oil spill on aquatic organisms and on the carcinogenic and genotoxic potential of environmental pollutants. – From 2008, we started working on the evaluation of the toxicity of nanomaterials to aquatic organisms with funding from the European Commission, the National Plan and the Basque Government. – Since its beginning in 2001, I am a member of the Research Group A «Cell Biology in Environmental Toxicology (BCTA)» recognized by the Basque Government, participating uninterruptedly in projects funded by the Basque Government, through the National Plan and the European Commission (BEEP project -V FP Environmental Programme-Marine.