Prof. Ravi Manjithaya is a Professor and Chair of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit and the Neuroscience Unit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru. He obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, where he studied post-transcriptional gene regulation, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Diego, focusing on autophagy-related pathways. Since joining JNCASR in 2011, his laboratory has investigated the molecular mechanisms regulating autophagy and related pathways in health and disease. His research employs diverse model systems, including yeast, mammalian cell lines, mouse, and Drosophila, and disease models such as intracellular infections, neurodegeneration, and pancreatic cancer. His group integrates basic biology with therapeutic discovery, identifying small drug-like molecules that modulate autophagy flux. Prof. Manjithaya was a Wellcome Trust–DBT Intermediate Fellow (2011–2016) and has received several prestigious honours, including the Sir C. V. Raman Young Scientist Award (Karnataka, 2019), the CDRI Award for Excellence in Drug Research (2020), and the S. Ramachandran–National Bioscience Award for Career Development from DBT. In 2024, he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).
