Last Wednesday, Andrea successfully defended her Bachelor’s Thesis in Chemistry at the Universidad del País Vasco EHU, carried out in collaboration with the Microfluidics Cluster UPV/EHU.

Her thesis, titled “Characterization and standardization of PDMS prototyping using CO₂ laser for the generation of hydrogel microstructures for 3D cell culture”, addresses a key challenge in microfluidics: optimizing PDMS micromachining via CO₂ laser to fabricate reproducible microchannels and enable rapid prototyping of advanced microfluidic devices. It also explores the viability of these systems to recreate more precise and realistic cellular microenvironments, opening new pathways in biomedical research and therapeutic development.

This excellent work was supervised by Gorka Albizu, Lourdes Basabe-Desmonts, and Juncal Anne Alonso, whose guidance was instrumental throughout the project.

In recognition of her dedication and excellence, Andrea was awarded the highest possible grade: 10 with Honors, a distinction that reflects both the quality of her research and her strong commitment to science.

This milestone marks the end of a remarkable academic chapter and the beginning of an exciting journey filled with new challenges and opportunities.

We wish Andrea continued success in her future research career—congratulations!