Gabriela Romero Uribe, PhD

The USAA Foundation Distinguished Professorship

Associate Professor, Biomedical and Chemical Engineering

Klesse Endowed Professor

Gabriela Romero Uribe’s research involves the development of soft biomedical materials to address challenging problems in brain health.

 She is principal investigator of the Macromolecular Bio-Interfaces Lab at UT San Antonio. Her team focuses on designing and engineering stimuli-responsive soft matter and biocompatible nanomaterials to manipulate cellular signals and behaviors in brain cells through biophysical and biochemical cues.

Romero Uribe has published refereed book chapters and articles in academic journals such as Science,Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Healthcare Materials, and ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. She has served as a peer reviewer for multiple journals and is an editor for Pharmaceutics. She has also served as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health.

Romero Uribe has received more than $3.5 million in external research funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health, Contex, and other leading agencies and organizations. She is a recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER Award and was selected to be featured in the Futures of Chemical Engineering Issue of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal.

Since joining the UT San Antonio faculty in 2017, Romero Uribe has been committed to mentoring and educating the next generation of scientists and engineers. Several of her graduate students and postdoctoral fellows have published in high impact journals, including Advanced Functional Materials and ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. She has also served on several thesis and dissertation committees and served as the first GAR for the chemical engineering program.

Romero Uribe holds a PhD in Applied Chemistry and Polymeric Materials from the University of Basque Country in Spain. Prior to joining UT San Antonio, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Kentucky. In addition to the USAA Foundation Distinguished Professorship, Romero Uribe is also a holder of a Klesse Endowed Professorship.