Michael J. McKenna

Michael J. McKenna, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Akouos. He is a world-renowned neurotologist with expertise in translational inner ear drug delivery research. For the past 15 years, Dr. McKenna led efforts to establish inner ear drug delivery systems to enable the development of hearing restoration therapies.

Prior to founding Akouos, he held the Joseph B. Nadol, Jr. Chair and was the director of the Division of Otology and Neurotology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and a professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. McKenna’s laboratory shaped the field’s understanding of the molecular pathophysiology of otosclerosis through over three decades of pioneering research. He and his colleagues were the first to demonstrate an association between the COL1A1 gene and clinical otosclerosis.

Dr. McKenna holds an M.D. from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, completed his otolaryngology residency at Harvard Medical School, and his fellowship in neurotology and skull base surgery at the House Ear Clinic.