Santiago Elena

Santiago Elena is CSIC professor and deputy director of the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), where he is the head of the Evolutionary and Systems Virology group.  In addition, he is an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute (NM, USA).  He graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Valencia and did a PhD thesis on Evolutionary Genetics of RNA viruses.  His work has always focused on the study of the mechanisms by which RNA viruses adapt to their hosts and how this adaptation results in the manipulation of cellular resources for their own benefit.  For this work, he combines experimental evolution, advanced molecular biology, molecular epidemiology, and mathematical modeling. Among other recognitions, he is an elected member of the European Organization for Molecular Biology (EMBO),  the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Academia Europaea.