Isabel Usón Finkenzeller completed a Chemistry degree (1987) and Ph. D. (1992) in synthetic organometallic chemistry at the U. of Zaragoza. In November 1992, she joined Procter & Gamble as Product Research Scientist in Brussels, gaining insight into the science and management of industrial chemistry. She moved as HCM postdoc to the U. of Göttingen in 1994. She has developed methods for crystallography for 30 years, first within the group of Prof. Sheldrick FRS, author of SHELX, during her postdoctoral research and Habilitation (1994-2001) and as of July 2001 leading an emergent group. September 2003, she moved to the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC) as ICREA Research Professor. Her work on structural chemistry and biology has led to over 185 publications. The software ARCIMBOLDO, SHELX and VAIRO are the central output of her work. She is Life Member of Clare Hall College (U. Cambridge).

The Usón group develops original computing methods in experimental structural biology since 2003.

The profound impact of Artificial Intelligence algorithms lies in their transformative capacity, effectively relating the vast knowledge accumulated, finding application in all fields, from humanities to medicine and changing our society.

The recent computational and experimental advances unfold new opportunities to be explored through the use of information. For the new integrative structural biology, which seeks to combine all structural techniques and relevant prior knowledge in a multi-scale vision in time and space, they will be an indispensable resource.

However, integration is still fraught with fundamental limitations in the joint treatment of structural experiments. Also, AI development creates new challenges, such as bias and the need to combine, yet differentiate experiments from predictions. Understanding and optimising the use of information is key to all these questions.