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Vengadeshprabhu Karuppa gounder, PhD

Dr. Vengadeshprabhu Karuppa gounder, PhD, joined Juvena Therapeutics as a Scientist II working on preclinical in vivo disease modeling and drug discovery. Dr. Karuppa gounder brings over 10 years of pharmacology & drug development experience in academic research. Dr. Karuppa gounder has strong background in pharmacology, immunology and molecular biology. He has several years of experience developing preclinical animal models in areas of diabetes, NASH, cardiomyopathy, autoimmune diseases, aging, osteoarthritis, IBD, renal and inflammatory diseases.

Dr. Karuppa gounder completed his Undergraduate and Master’s work on Pharmaceutical Sciences at the TamilNadu DR. MGR Medical University, Chennai, India and did his Ph.D. studies at Niigata University of Pharmacy and Applied Life Sciences, Japan, where he studied the role of HMGB1 and GPCR role in diabetes and autoimmune disease models. Then he joined as a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State College of Medicine, PA. During his fellowship, Dr. Karuppa gounder established new methods to study the role of GPCR signaling in synovitis, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis in mouse models and treatment options.

Dr. Karuppa gounder achieved the first author in leading scientific journals, Science Translational Medicine, & Aging Research Reviews and co-author of several research and review articles, and bagged several awards and grants.

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Ritwik Datta, PHD

Ritwik Datta joined Juvena Therapeutics as a Scientist on the Pharmacology team. Ritwik is a physiologist with over ten years of experience. His expertise lies in comprehending the molecular basis of cardiometabolic diseases. Ritwik’s approach to investigating complex biological questions involves utilizing both mouse models and cell-based methods to develop innovative therapies for cardiometabolic and pulmonary diseases.

Ritwik received his Ph.D. from the University of Calcutta under the guidance of Sagartirtha Sarkar, Ph.D. Ritwik focused on studying how two major cell types in the heart – cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts – communicated with each other through secreted molecules and how these signaling pathways impacted cardiac fibrosis.

Ritwik completed his extensive postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the lab of Kamran Atabai, MD. Ritwik’s research identified a novel integrin-mediated feedback loop of insulin receptor signaling that regulates skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity, laying the foundation for integrin-based therapy to lower daily insulin needs in diabetic patients. In his recent work, Ritwik investigated integrins’ role in regulating dietary fat metabolism in the intestine, providing insights into how intestinal lipid droplet homeostasis affects whole-body lipid metabolism and cardiovascular health.

Throughout his career, Ritwik has garnered recognition and support from prestigious organizations, including postdoctoral fellowships from the Larry L Hillblom Foundation, enabling him to pursue his research endeavors. Ritwik has 6, 1st author publications including in PNAS and Cell reports, and he is a co-author of 10 publications in leading scientific journals.

Besides his passion for science, Ritwik is a travel and photography enthusiast.

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Danielle Yi

Danielle joined Juvena Therapeutics as a Scientist I on the Pharmacology Team, contributing to preclinical in vivo research. She holds a B.A. in Integrative Biology and a Ph.D. in Endocrinology from UC Berkeley, where she focused on thermogenesis, energy metabolism, and obesity. Her research specifically explored key factors, such as transcription factors, histone modifiers, and signaling molecules, that activate thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue.

Danielle further developed her expertise in molecular cell biology during her postdoctoral work and has accumulated over eight years of experience designing and executing molecular and cellular bioassays, as well as a wide range of in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo assays. She has authored four first-author publications and contributed to co-authored papers in high-impact journals, including EMBO, Molecular Cell, Cell Reports, and eLife, among others, in the fields of obesity and metabolism.

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Hee Ju Kim, MS

Hee Ju joined Juvena Therapeutics as a Research Associate to work on the validation of our pipeline of pro-regenerative lead protein therapeutic candidates in in vivo preclinical models of aging and degenerative diseases caused by aging. 

She is originally from Korea and she received her master’s degree in biochemistry from Korea University. Her master’s degree was supported by Brain Korea 21 (BK21). During her masters, she was trained in basic molecular techniques and in vitro experiments. Her master’s thesis was about double stranded DNA repair in yeast ribosomal protein S3.  

Before joining Juvena Therapeutics, Hee Ju was trained as a research volunteer in the Peter W. Laird lab, Norris Cancer Center at the University of Southern California (USC). She was involved in the epigenomic projects and she designed the reaction oligo for Mouse MetyLight and some of the primers, which she designed, were published in the paper, Urology.

Hee Ju started improving her in vivo skills in the David J. Anderson’s lab as a research assistant for 5 years at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She was involved in the projects of anxiety and aggression. After she moved to Austin, she worked with Michael R. Drew as a research associate for 4 years at the Center for Learning and Memory, UT Austin. Then she worked at the KPC lab in Korea for 2 years in preclinical models of neurodegeneration, in particular Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.  

In Hee Ju’s free time, she enjoys traveling with family, playing golf, and spending time with her lovely dog Kelly.

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Kimberly Crutcher

Kimberly Crutcher is a dedicated research professional with over 20 years of experience in animal care routed through private practice, later transitioning to biotechnology and supporting drug discovery and development. Kimberly specializes in planning, executing, and analyzing preclinical studies while managing vivarium operations and supporting cross-functional research teams.

Throughout her career, she has held key roles at innovative biotech companies including Prothena Biosciences, Therini Bio, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and Charles River Laboratories. Her expertise includes in vivo study design, histology, immunohistochemistry (IHC), transgenic colony management, and implementation of training and compliance programs. She is also experienced in collaborating with contract research organizations (CROs) and has served on Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC).

Kimberly holds a Bachelor of Professional Studies in Human Services from the University of Memphis and dual Associate degrees in Science and Education from Southwest Tennessee Community College. She is RALAT certified through AALAS and has completed advanced training in leadership, environmental health and safety, and hazardous waste compliance.

Passionate about advancing scientific discovery, Kimberly brings a strong balance of technical expertise, leadership, and a collaborative spirit to every project she supports.

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