Santiago Elena - Biography#

Santiago Elena is CSIC professor and co-chairman of the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), where he is the head of the Evolutionary and Systems Virology group. In addition, he is external professor at the Santa Fe Institute (NM, USA) and adjunct professor of the Chinese Academy of Agronomic Sciences (CAAS).

He graduated in Biochemistry and did a PhD thesis on Evolutionary Molecular Genetics of RNA viruses at the University of Valencia. Afterwards, he did a postdoc in microbial experimental evolution in Michigan State University. After returning to Spain, he has hold positions as assistant and associate professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the U. Valencia (1998 - 2002) and then as senior researcher and professor of Evolutionary Virology at CSIC (2022 - present).

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, molecular biology and omics, molecular epidemiology, and mathematical modeling. He has published > 270 papers (18,907 citations, H = 69) and > 300 contributions to conferences in the fields of Evolutionary Genetics, Virology and Systems Biology. More than 80 invited seminars in institutions worldwide. Supervisor of 23 PhD theses and 20 postdocs. PI for 30 grants (including from EMBO, HFSP, The John Templeton Foundation, NSF, and EU FP7) and research contracts with industry for more than 16 M€ total.

Among other merits, he is an elected member of the European Organization for Molecular Biology (EMBO) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAA&S).