I am a PhD in Neuroscience and Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the Cell Biology and Histology Department of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). I have a solid predoctoral and postdoctoral research experience in the areas of neuroscience, cellular biology, histology, stem cells and developmental biology, in which I have been working since 1999.

I defended my doctoral thesis in 2004. That same year, I started a long three year and a half postdoctoral stay at the mixed research unit UMR5091 CNRS/University of Bordeaux, at the Institute François Magendie des Neurosciences (Bordeaux ; France). All the experience accumulated during that time served to lay the foundations for my subsequent teaching/research career, when I rejoined the UPV/EHU in 2008, and integrated within the Signaling Lab research group. In addition, I have also made short international research stays in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), the University of Saarland (Germany), and the University of Birmingham (UK).

Since I incorporated as teaching staff I have already completed 17 academic years in a row at the UPV/EHU, including a full 2-year period as Vice-Dean of Alumni and Mobility of the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing of the UPV/EHU (2017-2019), and another 5-year period as a member of the University Teaching Evaluation Commission. During my professional career I have been able to implement various teaching innovation methodologies, and I have made most of my teaching in Basque and English language.  For all these reasons I have been awarded the maximum grade of « Excellence/Distinction » by the Docentiaz program for the evaluation of higher-education teaching in the UPV/EHU, for two consecutive calls of 5 year periods.

Briefly reviewing my scientific production, I have published more than 40 articles in indexed journals, most of them in the first (Q1) and second (Q2) quartile of my fields of knowledge in JCR. I am also principal author (first, last, or corresponding) in many of these articles. As of today my publications accumulate an H-index of 21 (i10=27), and more than a thousand citations (source: Scholar Google). I am also coauthor of three international PCT patents.

Throughout my career I have participated in multiple research projects, at all levels: university (UPV/EHU projects, and research groups), regional (Basque Government consolidated groups, ELKARTEK SAIOTEK), state (Spanish Ministry; MICIU, MICINN, MINECO) and international European (FP7) levels. I am also Principal Investigator of the Basque Government-funded type A consolidated research group "Stem and Cancer Stem Cells" and one Spanish-Government funded project Retos Generación de Conocimiento by the Spanish Ministry os Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU). I have also led and participated in research contracts associated with external companies, managed through the Office for Transfer of Research Results (OTRI) of the UPV/EHU.

As part of my research activity, as of today I have also supervised more than 20 undergraduate final projects and master's degree projects. I also supervised 5 doctoral theses (all of them graded cum laude). My current research areas are stem cell biology, mainly dental pulp stem cells, and their potential application in tissue engineering processes for tissue regeneration, mainly bone tissue, muscle tissue, vascular tissue, and nerve tissue.

All my works, references and bibliographic indicators, available for each of my contributions, can be found in my public profiles in specialised research websites:

Scholar Google: http://scholar.google.es/citations?user=oDtGkYYAAAAJ&hl=en

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gaskon-Ibarretxe

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4961-7402

SciProfiles: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/882759

Scientific Production UPV/EHU: https://ekoizpen-zientifikoa.ehu.eus/investigadores/127602/detalle?lang=en