F. Xavier Aviles is full professor and outgoing director at the Department of Biochemistry & Mol Biol of UAB and group leader at the Institute for Biotechnology and Biomedicine of this institution. Besides UAB, where he got his PhD, he has been trained in the field of structural biology and biotechnology of proteins at the CSIC (Inst. Rocasolano, Madrid), University of Porstmouth (Biophysics Lab.), ETH-Zurich (Inst. Mol Biol & Biophys, K. Wüthrich group and Dpt. -Nobel Laureate-), Max-Planck Inst. Biochemie Munich (R. Huber group and Dept. -Nobel Laureate-), University of Cambridge (T. Blundell group and Dept. Biochemistry -Sir-), University of Uppsala (& BMC center) and University of Lund (Clinical Medicine Dpt. & Grand Hosp.), with long or medium stays. There, also completed his training in bioinformatics, proteomics and molecular imaging, and became further specialized on proteolytic enzymes and inhibitors.