Strategic Advisors Archives - Juvena Therapeutics

Hanadie Yousef, PhD

Dr. Hanadie Yousef is a scientist, entrepreneur, seasoned executive, and global thought leader in AI-driven regenerative medicine and longevity. With over two decades of experience in biomedical research, she is the Co-Founder of Juvena Therapeutics, where she served as CEO, CFO, and Board Chair from 2017 to 2025. Since the company’s incorporation, she pioneered its evolution from a platform-driven concept into a venture-backed, clinical-stage biotechnology leader. Under her leadership, Juvena secured over $105M in venture capital, non-dilutive grants, and partnerships, and developed a proprietary pipeline of tissue-restorative biologics for muscle and metabolic diseases.

Driven by a vision to decode the mechanisms of age-related tissue degeneration, Dr. Yousef leveraged Juvena’s AI-enabled JuvNET platform to map secreted proteins and build a proprietary library of pro-regenerative stem cell-secreted proteins and novel therapeutic candidates. Her leadership led to the successful completion of Phase 1 first-in-human safety studies for the company’s lead asset, JUV-161, targeting Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 and atrophy-related muscle wasting.

Expanding the boundaries of metabolic health, she advanced a robust preclinical pipeline, including JUV-112, a groundbreaking obesity asset that uniquely enhances lipid metabolism to induce weight loss via an energy-promoting, non-appetite-suppressing mechanism. Validating this platform-first approach, Dr. Yousef secured a prestigious discovery partnership with Eli Lilly to develop novel medicines aimed at enhancing muscle health, body composition, and quality of life for patients with metabolic complications.

Dr. Yousef’s high-impact research has led to multiple issued and pending patents and has been supported by competitive fellowships and grants from the NIH, National Science Foundation, SPARK, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

A recognized authority in the industry, Dr. Yousef was named to the 2025 Mayfield | Divot Industry Leader AI List and designated a World Economic Forum 2024 Technology Pioneer. Her extensive accolades include FierceBiotech’s “Fiercest Women in Life Sciences,” Business Insider’s “30 Leaders Under 40,” Endpoints’ “20(+2) Under 40,” the San Francisco Business Times “Women Who Lead in Life Sciences,” and the Biocom Catalyst Award.

Dr. Yousef is a regularly invited speaker at marquee biotech, AI, and healthcare innovation events. She earned her B.S. summa cum laude from Carnegie Mellon University, her PhD from UC Berkeley as an NSF Fellow, and completed a 5-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford School of Medicine as an NIH fellow and SPARK scholar. Her lifelong dedication to biomedical research and entrepreneurship began early, with research positions at Regeneron starting at age 15 and a neuroscience internship at Genentech.

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Mike Nohaile, PhD

Mike Nohaile, PhD, is Chief Executive Officer at Prellis Biologics and former Senior Vice President of Strategy, Commercialization & Innovation at Amgen Inc. Dr. Nohaile joined Amgen as Vice President of Strategy in December 2012. Prior to Amgen, he served as the Head and General Manager of the Molecular Diagnostics Business Unit at Novartis. He served Novartis as the Head of Corporate Strategy and Head of Pharmaceutical Strategy.

Mike began his career at McKinsey & Company, as partner in the New Jersey office, where he worked extensively in the healthcare area with a particular focus on diagnostics, devices and pharmaceuticals. He has a doctorate in molecular and cell biology from University of California, Berkeley and he was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT in the Department of Biology.

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Mark Leslie

Mark Leslie is a Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he teaches courses in Entrepreneurship, Ethics and Sales Organization. He is also the managing director of Leslie Ventures, a private investment company, and serves on the boards of public, private and nonprofit organizations.

Mark Leslie was Co-Founder and Chairman and CEO of Veritas Software. During his tenure as CEO, the company went from 12 employees to 6,000 employees, and from a revenue base of $95,000 per year to $1,500,000,000 per year. In 2000, Veritas was the 10th largest independent software company by revenue, third largest by market capitalization, and achieved the distinction of becoming a Fortune 1000 company.

From 1980 until 1990 he served as president and chief executive officer of two Silicon Valley high-tech start-up companies. His prior experience included sales management, sales executive, systems engineer, and software engineer focused on operating systems.

Mark currently serves on the boards of, or is an advisor to. a number of high-tech and biotech companies. Mark is also on the boards of Stanford Health Care, New York University and the Leslie Family Foundation.

Mark received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and mathematics from New York University in 1966 and completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development (PMD)in 1980.

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Susan Molineaux, PhD

Dr. Molineaux has been the Chief Executive Officer at Para Therapeutics, Inc., since April 2023. Previously, she was Chief Executive Officer, President and a member of the board of directors of Calithera Biosciences, Inc., since co-founding the company in June 2010 until March 2023.

Dr. Molineaux has served as a member of the board of directors of the Geron Corporation since 2012, Repare Therapeutics since April 2023, Cyteir Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage DNA repair and synthetic lethality company, from December 2020 until May 2023, and Theravance Biopharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from April 2015 to April 2022. She has also been a Scientific Advisor to Lightstone Ventures, a private life sciences investment company, since September 2016. Dr. Molineaux co-founded Proteolix, Inc., a privately held oncology-oriented biopharmaceutical company, where she served as Chief Scientific Officer from December 2003 until December 2005 and from February 2009 until November 2009, and as President and Chief Executive Officer from January 2006 until February 2009, until the company’s acquisition by Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global oncology-oriented biopharmaceutical company, in November 2009.

Previously, Dr. Molineaux held several senior management positions in the biopharmaceutical industry, including Vice President of Biology at Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, Vice President of Biology at Praelux, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, and Vice President of Drug Development at Praecis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company. Dr. Molineaux holds a B.S. in biology from Smith College, a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University.

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Hanadie Yousef, PhD

Mike Nohaile, PhD

Mark Leslie

Susan Molineaux, PhD

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