Ana Joaquina Pérez-Berná is a beamline scientist at the ALBA synchrotron near Barcelona in Spain.
As a biologist working on the soft X-ray cryo tomography beamline (MISTRAL), her role involves supporting the users with their experiments and also doing her own research. The beamline’s capabilities enable scientists to study down at the cellular level and the research covers a wide variety of diseases such as malaria, zika virus and SARS-CoV-2, along with treatments such as antivirals and chemotherapy. When describing her work, Ana says, “You are the first person who can enter the cell and see how it is inside, discover how the virus builds its bio-factories inside the cells, or discover how therapies work. Crossing that border for understanding how life is assembled, that is a privilege!”