Team

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Juvena Therapeutics

Dr. Hanadie Yousef is a leading expert on the biology of aging and mechanisms underlying tissue degeneration with over two decades of experience in biomedical research. In 2018, she launched Juvena Therapeutics, a venture-backed 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 myopathy and metabolic diseases. The company’s lead asset, JUV-161, promotes muscle regeneration and metabolism. It is in IND-enabling studies for the treatment of orphan disease Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 and is expected to enter the clinic in 2024. 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 a 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 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, San Francisco Business Times’ 2024 Women Who Lead in Life Sciences , and the 2022 Biocom Catalyst award. She is also a regularly invited speaker at industry and innovation events.

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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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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Dr. Banmeet Anand joined Juvena Therapeutics in October 2024 as Senior Vice President of Drug Development with more than 20 years of experience in the discovery and development of antibodies (naked, ADCs, fusion proteins and bi-specific), small molecules, and cellular therapies (NK-T, CAR-T). Dr. Anand most recently was Senior Vice President of Translational Medicine ay Harpoon Therapeutics (a subsidiary of Merck 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 engager) 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 is the latest addition to the Juvena team having joined the Company on May 1^st 2025 as the SVP Clinical Development. He brings with him over 36-years of drug development experience with both small and large molecules across multiple therapeutic areas, many of which were in orphan diseases. Over the course of his career Colin has been involved in early and late-stage clinical development as well as the successful prosecution of multiple drug approvals. Most recently Colin was SVP Clinical Development and Operations for Eiger BioPharmaceuticals where he 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. Prior to Eiger Colin was Chief Medical Officer at Versartis Inc, and before that SVP and Chief Medical Officer at Anthera Pharmaceuticals, helping to take the Company public in 2010. His industry career began with Eily Lilly & Company in the UK, before moving on to increasingly more senior positions with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, CV Therapeutics and Peninsula Therapeutics.

Colin was educated in the UK where he 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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Dr. King is President of Macnas Consulting International, Inc. Macnas specializes in strategic product development planning and execution for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies and in due diligence consulting for venture capital, investment, and pharmaceutical firms.

Dr. King has more than 25 years’ experience managing business and development operations in the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and CRO (Contract Research Organization) industries. In particular, he has directed, or been directly involved in, development programs for more than 100 pharmaceutical, medical device and biologics products. The products have addressed clinical targets in a broad range of therapeutic areas and the development programs have included more than 250 separate clinical trials in multiple countries.

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.

Dr. King’s book on development entitled, Get It Right The First Time! Pharmaceutical Product Development: Intelligent Solutions for Challenging Issues was recently published by Macnas Press, San Diego, CA. It is available online at www.macnaspress.com and through Amazon.

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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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