Manu V. Chakravarthy MD, PhD

Manu Chakravarthy, M.D., Ph.D., is the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Clinical Development for Axcella Health. In this position, he provides strategic direction and oversight for Axcella’s clinical research and development activities, including the execution of a variety of clinical trials across several indications. Manu brings a deep commitment to innovation and translational medicine with an unwavering focus to address serious unmet medical needs by translating breakthrough discoveries into the clinic, and meaningfully improve human health.

Prior to assuming his current role, Manu served as the Global Head of External R&D in diabetes and cardiovascular research at Eli Lilly & Co where he was responsible for external innovation efforts, including the identification/evaluation of novel therapeutics, platforms, and technologies for in/out-licensing, establishing academic collaborations, and consortia management across the value chain to complement and enhance Lilly’s internal R&D portfolio. He also served as the industry co-leader of the Innovative Medicine Initiative’s LITMUS project, one of the largest public-private consortia efforts to elucidate noninvasive biomarkers for NAFLD.