Lavanya is the Head of Partnerships & External innovation, within  the Strategy & Transformation group at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt,  Germany, a global life science and pharmaceutical company. Based at the  company’s Innovation Hub in the Bay Area, she is leading the exploration  of how these parallel industries can accelerate cultured meat  development. Lavanya has held diverse roles in sales, marketing and  strategy within the biotech industry. She has a PhD in Molecular &  Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.   Learn more about Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany at  culturedmeat.emdgroup.com