Laila was first trained as a (Bio)Chemical Engineer at the Tec de Monterrey in Mexico and the University of Birmingham in the UK. She finished her PhD in Natural Products Chemistry and Microbiology in 2007 at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, where she worked at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Products Research and Infections Biology Hans Knöll Institute. She started her research group at Cinvestav-Irapuato in Mexico in 2010, and since 2022 she has been its director.