Elena Conti is a biochemist and structural biologist recognized for her research on RNA degradation, surveillance and transport. Her team has identified the principles with which major cellular machines function at the molecular and chemical level, leading to a greater understanding of how they regulate RNA life.

Elena trained in Italy (chemistry degree from Pavia University), in the UK (PhD from Imperial College, London) and in the US (postdoc at the Rockefeller University, New York). She then moved to Germany to establish her research group first at EMBL and since 2007 at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich, where she is a Director. Elena is an elected member of EMBO and of the German Academy of Sciences. She has received several awards, including the Jeantet Prize for Medicine and Leibniz Prize.