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 180 publications. The software ARCIMBOLDO, SHELX and VAIRO are the central output of her work. She is Life Member of Clare Hall College (U. Cambridge).

Structural biology has for decades been underlying our understanding of function and evolution. Quoting Vogel & Wainwright, “structure without function is a corpse; function without structure is a ghost”. Today, structural biology is undergoing a fundamental transformation, towards an integrative vision of biochemistry and biology. In order to fully apprehend a system, we need detailed knowledge of the macromolecular actors and their association into complex structures, as well as of the stage they populate. As function is inherently dynamic, this spatial scale must be expanded by a time scale.

We aim to contribute to these new integrative perspectives, developing methods within our software ARCIMBOLDO, SHELX and VAIRO to channel the opportunities AI opens, overcome fundamental obstacles that hinder integration in structural determination and solve new challenges it rises.