Elena Conti

Biosketch

Elena Conti is a world-leading biochemist and structural biologist, renowned for uncovering the molecular mechanisms of macromolecular assemblies that govern the assembly, surveillance, and degradation of eukaryotic mRNAs. Born and raised in Varese, Italy, she earned a degree in Chemistry from the University of Pavia in 1991 and completed a PhD in Physical Sciences at Imperial College London in 1996. After conducting postdoctoral research at The Rockefeller University under John Kuriyan, she established her research group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg in 1999. In 2007, she moved to Munich to become a Max Planck Director and Scientific Member, positions she continues to hold as Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and Honorary Professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Conti’s work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2014), the Gregori Aminoff Prize (2022), the Hans Neurath Prize (2023), and the Jung Prize for Science and Research (2025). She is an elected NAS International Member and has also been elected to the Royal Society (ForMemRS, UK), the Accademia dei Lincei (Italy), the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Research Interests

Conti’s laboratory investigates how RNA–protein interactions shape the life cycle of mRNAs in eukaryotic cells, with a focus on understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern both productive processes—such as nuclear packaging and export—and destructive processes, namely surveillance and degradation. By leveraging state-of-the-art structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics, her lab has resolved atomic structures and mechanisms of key RNA decay machines, including the exosome and deadenylation complexes, as well as assemblies involved in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. Conti’s work on the RNA-degrading exosome, in particular, has resolved a long-standing puzzle regarding its dual role in RNA decay and RNA processing. More recent studies from her group reveal a physical coupling between the exosome and the ribosome, directly linking RNA degradation with translational in the cytoplasm and with processing in the nucleus. Building on her elucidation of macromolecular complexes that assemble on both coding and non-coding regions of mRNAs—such as the exon-junction complex and the poly(A) tail ribonucleoprotein—her lab is now investigating one of the most elusive aspects of gene expression: the structural organization of complete messenger ribonucleoprotein particles (mRNPs).