Santiago Elena

He is a CSIC research professor at the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology, where he directs the Evolutionary Systems Virology Group, and is an external professor at Santa Fe Institute (New Mexico, USA). He gained a degree in Biochemistry and did a doctoral thesis on Evolutionary Genetics. He has focused on the study of the mechanisms by which RNA viruses adapt to their hosts and how this adaptation, in the manipulation of cell resources, benefits them. His research combines experimental evolution, advanced molecular biology, molecular epidemiology and mathematic modelling. Among other merits, he is a member elect of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the Chinese Academy of Agronomic Sciences.