Manish Rai was born and raised in Sherpur Village, Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biology (BSc.) from VBS Purvanchal University Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, and his master’s in Biochemistry from Jiwaji University Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. He did his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biological Sciences with Dr. Kausik Chakraborty from CSIR- CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi, India. During his Ph.D., his work focused on understanding the role of proteostasis in the laboratory thermo-evolution in E. coli. From this work, they were able to find the link between proteostasis and cellular metabolism. The central metabolism change during thermo-evolution is associated with a change in the proteostasis of E. coli. After completing his Ph.D. in 2019, he joined Dr. Vyacheslav Labunskyy at Boston University as a Postdoc. Where he worked on understanding the longevity signature of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using Riboseq and RNA seq analysis. In 2020, he moved to RPI, Troy to work with Prof. Mattheos Koffas for his next PostDoc. Where he worked on cloning and characterization of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from the gut microbiome.

In 2023, he joins Prof. Gregory Stephanopoulos at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Postdoc. His current research focuses on engineering oleaginous yeast (Yarrowia lipolytica) to improve carbon utilization pathways to improve the yield of high-value chemicals like alkane and biofuel.