I was born in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, and moved in my early childhood first to Madrid and then to Laredo. I attended "Saint Vincent of Paul" Elementary and "Bernardino de Escalante" High School in Laredo, where I grew up. Starting when I was six years old, I studied piano at the "Jesús de Monasterio" Conservatory of Music in Santander under professor Isabel Charlón. I attended college at the University of Salamanca, where I received a bachelor's and a master's degree in Pharmacy. While in Salamanca, I was a member of the "Gran Vía" sorority.

After a short stint as a pharmacist, I relocated to the United States. Between 1995 and 2009, I worked in the Organic Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Development departments at Affymax, a biotechnology firm based in Palo Alto, California. There, I helped develop a rich pipeline of synthetic peptide-based drugs against clinically-validated targets for the treatment of kidney diseases and cancer. I currently work at AbbVie, a leading pharmaceutical company, in the discovery and development of biopharmaceuticals and small molecule drugs.

I live with Rufo, my husband, and our cat Lexi in San José, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. I like to read and am intreseted in political science and new technologies, specially electric and driverless cars.