Isabel Rozas was born in Madrid, Spain. After a B.Sc. in (Organic) Chemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1981, Spain) she carried out postgraduate research at the Institute of Medicinal Chemistry (CSIC, Madrid, Spain) obtaining her PhD degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1987. She performed post-doctoral research in the University of Saskatchewan (1989-91, Canada), followed by a second post-doctoral fellowship at Queen’s University in Kingston (1993-94, Canada).
After working for 14 years as a researcher at the mentioned Institute of Medicinal Chemistry, in 2000 she moved to the School of Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin as a Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry. In 2003, she became director of the Medicinal Chemistry course; in 2005, was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin; in 2006, she became Senior Lecturer, and in 2007 was elected by her colleagues as Head of Organic, Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, a position that she held during three years. In 2010, she became Professor in Chemistry. She has held several positions at the School of Chemistry in TCD: during the years 2011-2014 she was Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning, in 2015-2016 Director of Research and from 2018 to 2024 was the Director of Global Engagement.
Her main area of research is framed within the Medicinal Chemistry field, and, thus, her group works in the modelling, preparation and biophysical and biological evaluation of: (i) agents targeting nucleic acids (DNA minor groove and Guanine-quadruplexes) as anticancer or antiprotozoal therapies; (ii) guanidine-based inhibitors of protein kinases; (iii) compounds targeting adrenergic alpha2- or specifically alpha2C-receptors with application as antidepressants or antipsychotic agents; (iv) piperazine guanidinium derivatives as anti-tuberculosis agents; and recently (v) compounds targeting TMPRSS2 protease as potential anti Covid-19 therapies. In addition, she has an interest in the theoretical study of non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonds. She has published over 175 papers and collaborates with several groups in Ireland, Spain, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, Canada and USA. Between 2019 and 2022, she was an Editor of Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters and now is a member of the Advisory Board for both Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters as well as Special Issue Editor for Results in Chemistry.
Presently, she is the Chairperson of the Division of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry in the ICI (Institute of Chemistry of Ireland) and member of the Council of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (EFMC). She has been just awarded the ICI Eva Philbin Lecture Award 2025.