Elah Pick was born and grew up in Karmiel, a city in the Galilee region of northern Israel. Her parents were one of the first pillars of the city in its first decades. After high school and a year of community service at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) she served in the Israeli army as a wilderness guide at Eilat Field School, guiding tours at the desert mountains and the coral coast nature reserve. Therefore, it was not surprising that she chose to study environmental biology in an excellent department located in Oranim and belonging to the University of Haifa. Yet, during the first degree, Elah discovered the world of small molecules: Chemistry, Molecular biology and Biochemistry. She continued for a second degree at the Neurobiochemistry department of Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Nava Zisapel followed by a Ph.D at the Biology Department of the Technion in Haifa under the supervision of Prof. Dan Cassel. Both of her supervisors, felt her with a desire to learn more about protein biology, enzymology and organelle/cell biology.
Accordingly, as a postdoctoral fellow, Elah studied the ubiquitin pathway and the 26S proteasome megacomplex at the laboratory of Prof. Michael Glickman, where she has not only strength her biochemical skills, but also introduced with evolutionary and phylogenetic aspects, including the paralogy/orthology between macromulecular protein complexes such as the 26S-proteasome lid and the COP9 signalosome, and between small polypeptides such as ubiquitin and NEDD8. This lead her to join the laboratory of Dr. Ning Wei at Yale, who studies the COP9 signalosome and counterparts in mammalian systems, and collaborating with the adjacent laboratory of Prof. Xing Wang Deng who studied similar aspects in plants. To integrate the know-how, Elah Pick returned back to Israel and established her own lab at the department for Biology & Environment of the University of Haifa - Oranim, where she studies at various levels the link between evolution and environmental stress and the proteolytic systems.