She studied Geography and History at the University of Valencia, where she obtained her PhD in History in 1986 with the dissertation The Hospital of Valencia in the 16th Century (1512–1600). From 1990 to 2015, she was a Scientific Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Science López Piñero (UV–CSIC), which she directed for two years. She currently works at INGENIO, a joint research institute of the Universitat Politècnica de València and the CSIC.

Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of science in the Early Modern period, structured around three main lines. First, she studies medical cultures in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly within the context of the Hispanic Monarchy. She has published extensively on the history of hospitals, the regulation of medical practice—especially in the Valencian context—and healthcare resources, as well as on the presence of extra-academic forms of medicine in Early Modern society, with particular emphasis on the role of women as health agents. As part of this approach to past medical cultures, she has also published several works on representations of medicine in literature, especially in Spanish Golden Age theatre.

Her second line of research addresses natural history in relation to the Discovery of America, focusing on the process through which American plants—particularly the tomato—were introduced into Europe. Finally, she has worked on the compilation of bibliographic catalogues and the editing of historical medical sources.