Full Team Archives - Juvena Therapeutics

Hanadie Yousef, PhD

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Juvena Therapeutics

Dr. Hanadie Yousef is an entrepreneur, scientist, and leading expert on the mechanisms underlying age-related tissue degeneration with over two decades of experience in biomedical research. In 2018, she launched Juvena Therapeutics, a venture-backed, platform-driven, clinical stage biotechnology company mapping the therapeutic potential of secreted proteins and accelerating their translation into engineered biologics that promote tissue repair and restoration of function and health to treat degenerative diseases.

Under Dr. Yousef’s leadership, Juvena has leveraged its Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled platform to develop a proprietary, pro-regenerative protein library that enabled the discovery and development of a growing pipeline of biologics for muscle and metabolic diseases. The company’s lead asset, JUV-161, promotes muscle regeneration and metabolism. As of Q2 2025, it is in Phase 1 safety studies for the treatment of orphan disease Myotonic Dystrophy Type and sarcopenia. In addition, Juvena is progressing multiple preclinical programs across metabolic and fibrotic disease areas, including a novel preclinical obesity asset, JUV-112, that uniquely enhances lipid metabolism to induce weight loss through an energy expenditure promoting, non appetite-suppressing mechanism.

Dr. Yousef’s high-impact published research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation, SPARK, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and led to multiple issued and pending patents. She has received multiple awards and recognition for her entrepreneurship and innovation, including San Francisco Business Times’ “Women Who Lead in Life Sciences”, In Vivo’s “Rising Leaders“, and Founders Forum’s “100 Women Founders to Watch” in 2024, FierceBiotech’s “Fiercest Women in Life Sciences,” Business Insider’s “30 Leaders Under 40 Changing Healthcare in 2023,” Endpoints’ “The 20(+2) under 40,” and Pharmaceutical Executive’s “Emerging Pharma Leader”in 2023, , and the 2022 Biocom Catalyst award. She is also a regularly invited speaker at industry and innovation events. Under her leadership, Juvena has been recognized as the “NextGen Class of 2024: Top Life Sciences Startups to Watch This Year” by BioSpace and as a World Economic Forum 2024 Technology Pioneer company.

Dr. Yousef earned her B.S., summa cum laude from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD from UC Berkeley as an NSF graduate research fellow then completed a 5-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford School of Medicine as an NIH fellow and SPARK scholar.

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Jeremy O’Connell, PhD

As Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Juvena Therapeutics, Dr. O’Connell oversees research strategy, pre-clinical science and manufacturing, and intellectual property efforts. Dr. O’Connell’s expertise in proteomics and systems biology was accrued during a PhD from UT Austin, a postdoc at Harvard, and his time in industry.

Prior to Juvena Therapeutics, in his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical school in the lab of Steven Gygi, he leveraged large proteomics datasets to build machine learning classifiers to improve protein-protein interaction predictions within the ubiquitin system.

He has spearheaded research projects in multiple tier-one research institutions, including Harvard and Stanford, employing a combination of mass spectrometry, high throughput imaging, and computational approaches. His work has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications, approved and pending patents, millions in award grant funding as the primary PI, fellowships, and awards.

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Banmeet Anand, PhD

Dr. Banmeet Anand’s more than 20 years experience in the discovery and development of antibodies encompasses fusion proteins, naked, ADCs and bi-specific antibodies; small molecules, and cellular therapies (NK-T, CAR-T) at biotechs and large pharma including Harpoon (a subsidiary of Merck & Co. inc.), Astellas and Genentech.

As senior vice president of drug development Dr. Anand leads development of Juvena’s biological assets including the pre-clinical, non-clinical and IND-enabling studies.

Prior, he served as Senior Vice President of Translational Medicine at Harpoon Therapeutics (a subsidiary of Merck & Co. Inc.) where he led toxicology, pharmacology, biomarkers, non-clinical/clinical PK/PD, companion diagnostics including IND-enabling studies supporting Harpoon’s proprietary TriTAC biologics (T-cell engagers) portfolio. Dr. Anand previously held management and scientific positions at Molecular Templates, NantKwest (ImmunityBio), Astellas (Agensys) and Genentech where he was involved in early and late development of multiple approved drugs such as RITUXAN®, PADCEV® and OCREVUS®.

Dr. Anand received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemistry from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

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Colin Hislop

As SVP Clinical Development, Dr. Colin Hislop leads Juvena’s clinical-stage drug candidates. His 36-years drug development and life science experience spans roles across multiple therapeutic areas at companies including Lilly (formerly Eli Lilly & Company), Proctor & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, CV Therapeutics, Peninsula Therapeutics, Versartis Inc., Anthera Pharmaceuticals and Eiger BioTherapeutics. His expertise encompasses early and late-stage clinical development of both small and large molecules, as well as the successful prosecution of multiple drug approvals.

Just prior to Juvena, Colin helped lead the successful prosecution of an NDA (2020) and MAA (2022) for lonafarnib to treat an ultra-rare genetic disease called Hutchinson-Guilford Progeria Syndrome. Previously Colin has held senior management positions as SVP Clinical Development and Operations for Eiger BioTherapuetics, Chief Medical Officer at Versartis Inc; SVP and Chief Medical Officer at Anthera Pharmaceuticals where he served on the leadership team to take the Company public.

Colin obtained an undergraduate degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Surrey and his medical degree from the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London.

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Bernard (Barney) D. King, MD, MBA, RAC (US, EU)

Dr. King brings more than 25 years’ experience managing business and development operations in the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and CRO (Contract Research Organization) industries to his role as Chief Medical Officer at Juvena Therapeutics. Leveraging his expertise in life science product development planning and execution and in due diligence consulting for venture capital, investment, and pharmaceutical firms, Dr. King oversees all aspects of Juvena’s clinical development and medical affairs.

Prior to his role at Juvena, Dr. King directed, or has been directly involved in, development programs for more than 100 pharmaceutical, medical device and biologics products across diverse f therapeutic areas and overseen more than 250 clinical trials globally – experiences he captures in his book “Get It Right The First Time! Pharmaceutical Product Development: Intelligent Solutions for Challenging Issues.”

Dr. King graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame, majoring in English and Preprofessional Studies, and received his MD from the Ohio State University College of Medicine. He is board certified in Cardiology and Internal Medicine. He received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

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Priya Handa, PhD

Priya Handa, PhD has over 15 years of experience in basic, preclinical and translational research spanning multiple disease areas including metabolic, hepatic, renal and ocular, among others. Prior to joining Juvena Therapeutics, Priya was a Principal Scientist and a team leader at Surrozen focused on tissue regeneration using their antibody platform in diseases with an unmet need. There, she championed several early stage discovery programs and was a key contributor to the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) program which is currently in Phase I clinical trials.

Prior to joining Surrozen, Priya made seminal observations on the pathological underpinnings of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis( NASH) in the Swedish Organ Care Research Program and Benaroya Research Institute at Seattle working closely with world-renowned physician-scientist, Dr. Kris Kowdley. She published her pivotal findings in leading journals such as Hepatology, and presented over 30 posters and gave 7 podium talks in prestigious conferences such as American Association in the Studies on Liver Diseases (AASLD) and Digestive Diseases Week (DDW) among others, on her key work on liver diseases including Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and Primary Biliary Sclerosis. Prior to that, at the University of Washington’s Diabetes Institute, Priya uncovered a central role for vascular nitric oxide signaling in regulating adipose tissue inflammation and metabolic dysfunction and highlighted an essential role for ApoA1 in regulating inflammation.

She completed her Ph.D in the Indian Institute of Science delineating various DNA repair pathways, and received the best thesis award for her dissertation. She did her postdoctoral work at the University of Washington in Seattle on DNA repair and genomic instability. Priya has authored 38 publications including book chapters and reviews, and has presented her findings in numerous international meetings and is a co-inventor of a patent for corneal regeneration.

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Thach Mai, PhD

Dr. Thach Mai joined Juvena Therapeutics as a Stem Cell Biologist and Bioinformatician to lead the validation and discovery of the key rejuvenating protein factors in Juvena Therapeutics’ complex embryonic secretome cocktail and develop and improve Juvena’s HTS platform for protein therapeutic discovery.

Dr. Mai is a trained stem cell biologist and immunologist with a focus on the mechanisms of muscle degeneration and aging. Dr. Mai received his PhD in Molecular Biology and Immunology from UC Irvine and a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. During his fellowship, Dr. Mai used bioinformatics to accurately quantify high-throughput genomics data from multi-nucleated cells (heterokaryons) consisting of human and mouse gene transcripts to discover a novel transcription factor that drives the reprogramming of fibroblasts to pluripotency. Self-taught in ML with a strong passion for rapid biological discovery, he has generated deep learning models that identify muscle-specific aging genotypes as well as a machine learning classifier for the myogenic differentiation state of a single cell with a heterogeneous population.

Dr. Mai has been awarded multiple fellowships including from the National Institute of Health (F32), has three, 1st author publications including in Nature Journals, and is co-author of thirteen publications with one in review.

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Zhihua Li, PhD

Dr. Li is a biologist with a multidisciplinary background in Biochemistry, Immunology, Cell and Molecular Biology, with 7 years of research experience in academia and 4 years in industry. He joined Juvena Therapeutics as a Protein Engineering Scientist to build protein expression and purification pipelines and to improve Juvena Therapeutics’ pipeline library of rejuvenating proteins for therapeutic purposes.

Following a BS in Biochemistry and Master’s Degree (MS) in genetics from scientific and technical universities in China, and a second MS in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Southern California all during which he conducted research, Dr. Li completed his PhD (2007) and postdoctoral training (2014) in Cell and Molecular Biology from UT Austin, where he studied protein-protein interactions in different ways: first by combining computational predictions with experimental validations to discover 15 new protein factors functioning in the biogenesis of ribosomes; then by combining powerful mass spectrometry with protein fractionation techniques to create protein complex maps for both yeast and human cells. Continuing his exploration of novel protein interactions in his postdoctoral research, Dr. Li elucidated the self-cleavage mechanism of a novel membrane-bound transcription factor that drives oligodendrocyte differentiation. He’s published multiple co-authorships and first authorship studies along the way.

Before joining Juvena, Dr. Li worked in industry and biotech startups as Lead Scientist, Life Science Consultant, Scientific Advisor and R&D director. As Lead Scientist at BMLogic, Dr. Li developed and optimized the protein secretory production system in Pichia, leading to improved protein secretion efficiency and greatly reduced protein degradation.

Besides his passion for science, he enjoys spending time with his kid and exploring nature.

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Bek Madjidov

Bek Madjidov is the Head of Finance and Operations at Juvena Therapeutics, responsible for administrative and operational functions (finance, human resources, information technology, and facilities).

Bek is a transformational leader who brings strong business acumen and over 15 years of finance and operations experience in the biotech and high-tech industries. His areas of expertise are strategic planning, business analysis, management reporting, process improvement, and organizational transformation.

Bek previously served as Finance Director at Genentech (Roche), supporting Product Development and Manufacturing Operations organizations. He provided finance leadership to global product and functional teams and led transformational efforts in business and finance organizations. Prior to Genentech, Bek held a variety of finance and leadership roles at Autodesk and Bio-Rad Laboratories by successfully building and leading teams that built strong, cross-functional business partnerships in complex, matrix organizations.

Bek holds a Bachelor of Science (summa cum laude) in Business Administration from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York (SUNY). Bek is pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Sharon Louie, PhD

Sharon joined Juvena Therapeutics as a Senior Scientist working on preclinical in vivo disease modeling and drug discovery. She received her B.S. in Molecular Toxicology and Ph.D in Metabolic Biology from UC Berkeley where she used chemoproteomic and metabolomic technologies to uncover metabolic drivers of triple-negative breast cancers. Sharon completed her post-doctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School where she developed a transplantation assay for lung stem cell-derived organoids to mouse models with lung disorders to assess the potential for future cell therapies. She then spent a few years in the biotech industry leading studies to support preclinical drug development.

Sharon has been awarded multiple fellowships during her time in academia, including the NSF graduate fellowship and the Hope Funds for Cancer fellowship. She is a co-author on 22 publications.

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Hanadie Yousef, PhD

Jeremy O’Connell, PhD

Banmeet Anand, PhD

Colin Hislop

Bernard (Barney) D. King, MD, MBA, RAC (US, EU)

Priya Handa, PhD

Thach Mai, PhD

Zhihua Li, PhD

Bek Madjidov

Sharon Louie, PhD

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