# Ajikumar Parayil

> Ajikumar Parayil is the founder and CEO of Manus Bio, a Boston-based company using engineered microbes and precision fermentation to make complex plant-based molecules - sweeteners, fragrances, flavors and active ingredients - without harvesting the plants. He co-invented the core technology at MIT with chemical engineering professor Gregory Stephanopoulos, publishing a landmark 2010 Science paper that raised production of a cancer-drug precursor roughly a thousandfold. Since launching Manus in 2011, he has pushed the science out of the lab and into industrial tanks, scaling to what the company describes as one of the largest precision fermentation footprints in the United States, in Augusta, Georgia.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Manus Bio
- **Organizations:** Manus Bio, Mirakel Technologies Inc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (former postdoc)
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** Ph.D., Mahatma Gandhi University, India, Post-doctoral research, Singapore-MIT Alliance, Singapore, Post-doctoral research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- **Known for:** Co-invented Manus Bio's core metabolic engineering platform at MIT., Co-author of a 2010 Science paper reporting a roughly thousandfold increase in a cancer-drug precursor via engineered bacteria., Inventor on more than 180 U.S. and international granted and pending patents.

## Career timeline

- **mid-2000s** — Works with MIT professor Gregory Stephanopoulos to re-engineer the isoprenoid metabolic pathway in bacteria.
- **2010** — Co-authors a landmark paper in Science describing multivariate modular metabolic engineering, raising output of a cancer-drug precursor roughly a thousandfold.
- **2011** — Founds Manus Bio to commercialize the MIT technology.
- **2018** — Manus scales from lab to a pilot fermentation plant.
- **2020** — Wins the AIChE Raphael Katzen Award; company advances commercial products including the sweetener Reb M.
- **2023-2025** — Manus scales its Augusta, Georgia BioFacility toward 1.3 million liters of fermentation capacity; Parayil inducted into the AIMBE College of Fellows.

## Achievements

- Co-invented Manus Bio's core metabolic engineering platform at MIT.
- Co-author of a 2010 Science paper reporting a roughly thousandfold increase in a cancer-drug precursor via engineered bacteria.
- Inventor on more than 180 U.S. and international granted and pending patents.
- Author of more than 60 publications in biotechnology and chemical biology.
- Won the AIChE Raphael Katzen Award (2020).
- Inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows.
- Scaled Manus to what the company calls one of the largest precision fermentation footprints in America (Augusta, Georgia).

## Latest updates

- **2025-06** — Featured as a speaker on biomanufacturing at the BIO International Convention and SynBioBeta, positioning industrial biotechnology as a strategic national priority.
- **2024-01** — Manus continued scaling its Augusta, Georgia BioFacility toward roughly 1.3 million liters of fermentation capacity.

## Links

- Website: https://manusbio.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ajikumar-parayil-96374a7

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ajikumar-parayil
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-06