Dr. Srinivas Akkaraju is the Founder and Managing General Partner at Samsara BioCapital. Previously, from April 2013 to February 2016, he served as a General Partner of Sofinnova Ventures. From January 2009 until April 2013, he served as Managing Director of New Leaf Venture Partners. Previously, he served as a Managing Director at Panorama Capital, LLC, a private equity firm. Prior to co-founding Panorama Capital, Dr. Akkaraju was with J.P. Morgan Partners, which he joined in 2001 and of which he became a Partner in 2005. From October 1998 to April 2001, he was in Business and Corporate Development at Genentech, Inc. (now a wholly owned member of The Roche Group), a biotechnology company, most recently as Senior Manager.
Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Akkaraju was a graduate student at Stanford University, where he received his MD and a PhD in Immunology. He received his undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Computer Science from Rice University. Dr. Akkaraju serves as a director of Scholar Rock, Mineralys Therapeutics, Syros Pharmaceuticals, and several private biotechs. Previously, he served as a director on the boards of Seattle Genetics, Principia Biopharma, Chinook Therapeutics, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, ZS Pharma, Synageva Biopharma Corp., Amarin Corporation, Aravive, Inc., and Barrier Therapeutics.