Mark J. Manary MD

Mark Manary is the Helene Roberson Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University. His professional goal is to ‘fix malnutrition for kids in Africa’. To this end, he has developed ready-to-use therapeutic food and used the food in home-based therapy. Ready-to-use therapeutic food is a novel lipid-based food which has been accepted as the standard of care for uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition by the UN agencies. He did the first clinical trial with this food in 2001. Recently he formulated and evaluated new foods designed to supplement pregnant women at risk for poor pregnancy outcomes and treat acute childhood malnutrition. He also recognizes the importance of work to prevent childhood malnutrition, and to that end am exploring the use of legumes and animal source foods as complementary foods for children 6-24 months in Malawi. He believes the ultimate solution for malnutrition will incorporate improved agriculture, and hence have close relationship with USAID’s global food security program. I continue to explore the basic pathophysiologoy and metabolism of enteropathy and malnutrition and am currently looking at the gut microbiota and metabolome in children in Africa.