Dr Elena Palma completed her Master and PhD at the University of Padova, Italy, under the supervision of Professor Paolo Bernardi, investigating the pathophysiological role of mitochondrial in muscular dystrophies and acute liver failure, and gaining extensive expertise in mitochondrial functional assays.

Following her PhD, she joined the Institute of Hepatology, Foundation for Liver Research, where she established human precision-cut liver and tumour slice (PCLS) technology and a comprehensive mitochondrial analysis platform, including ethical frameworks, tissue logistics, and experimental pipelines. These efforts enabled a series of publications positioning PCLS as a discovery and preclinical testing tool for steatotic liver disease and liver cancer. Furthermore, Dr Palma has played a key role in the dissemination of PCLS technology, including organising two EASL basic science schools on this topic.

Dr Palma conceived and led the first studies demonstrating that perturbations in mitochondrial dynamics contribute to alcohol-related liver disease and pioneering the investigation of megamitochondria in basic research studies on alcohol hepatotoxicity.

Since 2023, she is the Principal Investigator of the MitoMed lab. Her current research focuses on mitochondrial remodelling in the liver in response to metabolic, inflammatory, and alcohol related stressors, as well as in liver cancer, with the aim of elucidating disease mechanisms and identifying novel therapeutic targets.

Dr Palma is also theme lead for steatotic liver disease within her department and is actively involved in the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism, where she contributes to collaborative research initiatives across Europe.