Dr. Yolanda Diebold completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at the Complutense University at Madrid (Spain) and her Ph.D. in Ocular Cell Biology at the University of Valladolid (UVA) (Valladolid, Spain). Her postdoctoral training was first in Ocular Immunology at UVA and then in Dr. Darlene A. Dartt Laboratory at the Schepens Eye Research Institute-Harvard Medical School in Boston (MA, USA), in which she acquired expertise in animal models of ocular autoimmune diseases. She then joined UVA as Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology in 2000. Currently, she is Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at UVA and leads the Nanomedicine Applied to Inflammatory Ocular Surface Diseases Laboratory, at the Institute of Applied Ophthalmo-Biology (IOBA) of UVA. She is also a staff member of the Biomedical Research Networking Centre in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Carlos III National Institute of Health, Spain since its beginning in 2006.

Dr. Diebold teaches at the School of Optometry and has a significant commitment toward Ph.D. candidate’s supervision and training. She maintained a high standard in student mentoring and has supervised numerous undergraduate projects and Master and Ph.D. theses. In addition, she serves as Coordinator of the InterUniversity Ph.D. Program in Visual Sciences at UVA. She also maintains active and highly collaborative national and international scientific networks which allows the international training of most of her trainees.

Dr. Diebold has uninterrupted regional, national and international funding grants since 2000. Currently, she is the PI at her University of the European Consortia 3DNEONET and collaborates in the IT-DED3 Consortium. She has published over 60 papers in indexed, peer-reviewed specialized journals, book chapters, and close to 150 abstracts and invited conference presentations in different areas (h-index of 25).

Dr. Diebold’s main interest is the field of advanced therapies, specifically biomedical applications of biomaterials. Her research is focused on the development of nanomedicines to fight ocular inflammatory diseases. For that, she and her team are also engaged in the development of in vitro and ex vivo models to test materials and nanomedicines.

2017: The Brien A Holden Memorial Lecturer, nineteenth ISCLR Symposium (Skamania, WA, USA)

1998: Chibret (Merck Sharp & Dome) National Research Prize for outstanding Doctoral Thesis

1998: The Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation Ethel Baxter Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology Research

1994: Valladolid Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery (Spain) for excellence in Medicine Research