She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the Faculty of Chemistry (F.Q.), UNAM, a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh, and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge, the University of New Mexico–Las Cruces, and the CNRS in Lyon, France. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Barcelona, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the CNR in Florence, and in Pima, Peru. She was named Professor Emerita by the Faculty of Chemistry, UNAM, in 2024, and National Researcher Emerita of the SNII in 2018. Her fields of expertise include Coordination Chemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry, and Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry, of which she is a pioneer in Mexico. She is the founder and coordinator of the lecture series “Science Beyond the Classroom.”
Her academic output includes 110 supervised theses, 27 at the doctoral level, and 220 indexed articles with more than 5,200 citations. She was appointed Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Global Science Institute, Berkeley (2019) and recognized as a leader in her field by the Royal Society of Chemistry, which awarded her the distinction of Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016). Among her most notable awards are the National Chemistry Award “Andrés Manuel del Río” (1998); the Juana Ramírez de Asbaje (Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz) Award (2003); the National University Award for Teaching in Natural Sciences (2005); the Heberto Castillo Award, accompanied by the creation of the Lena Ruiz Azuara Award granted by ICYT DF (2007); the Canifarma Award (2007); the Academic Career Recognition from the Mexican Chemical Society (2017); the Coatlicue Award for Scientific Research (2019); the National Prize for Sciences and Arts in Physical-Mathematical and Natural Sciences (2021); and the Martín de la Cruz Award (2021) from the General Health Council.
She has served on numerous evaluation and review committees at UNAM, CONACYT, CIEES, and the SNII Honor Board, and was President of the Mexican Chemical Society A.C. (2013–2015). She was also the founding president of the Women and Science Group at UNAM (2006–2016). Her main research focus has been the development of metallopharmaceuticals based on essential metals for cancer and antiparasitic therapies, leading to the approval of one of the developed molecules for clinical phase studies by two scientific societies. She is also a founding member of the Mexican Association of Molecular Biology in Medicine.