Episode shownotes
Dr. Hanadie Yousef is a scientist, aging biology expert and the co-founder and CEO of Juvena Therapeutics, a Palo Alto-based biopharma startup developing protein-based therapeutics to promote tissue regeneration and increase healthspan to prevent, reverse, and cure degenerative diseases.
Dr. Yousef joins host Dr. Chris Patil to discuss Juvena’s premise, their use of a machine learning platform to identify proteins that have therapeutic potential, and what most excites her about turning signaling proteins into therapeutics. She answers questions about handling potential challenges within Juvena’s approach, their strategy for bringing drugs to market, and the first aging indication that they are targeting - muscular rejuvenation. Dr. Yousef outlines Juvena’s plans for a clinical study in patients with Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 by 2023, and shares what’s coming down the pipeline next for her team. You’ll also hear about Dr. Yousef’s transition from academic science to becoming an entrepreneur, her involvement with the On Deck initiative, which seeks to increase the number of scientists, researchers, and inventors in the healthspan and longevity field, and why it’s so worthwhile to invest in anti-aging science.
The interview concludes with Dr. Yousef’s advice for potential new founders in the biotech industry. She also shares the areas of longevity science that she is most fascinated by, and offers her thoughts on how the field of aging pharma will evolve over the next five to ten years.
Episode Highlights:
- Tissues deteriorate as we get older and our ability to heal slows down - this leads to a wide variety of age-related diseases
- Juvena Therapeutics sets out to find regenerative cures for those diseases
- During the aging process, critical regenerative protein signaling pathways that are important for instructing cells and tissues within our bodies start to change
- They start becoming over-expressed or under-expressed
- There is a change and loss of healthy crosstalk between pathways that can instruct cells
- This leads to a loss of tissue homeostasis
- By understanding what is changing within us, we can use that information to target protein signaling pathways that are important for stem cell function, immune cell function, etc. in order to rejuvenate tissues and reverse the aging process
- Juvena uses a machine learning platform by combining several data modalities
- Their premise is to develop protein-based therapies that can target critical regenerative signaling pathways in our bodies to promote better regeneration
- They do this by mining secretome of the most po-regenerative source of cells, which are human embryonic, or pluripotent, stem cells
- Aging models that they use are cells derived from people who are themselves aged or who have an age-related disease
- There are challenges with every therapeutic intervention targeting the biology of aging
- Juvena’s strategy for bringing drugs to market and the first aging indication they are targeting
- They are looking to promote tissue-specific rejuvenation, for example, better muscle differentiation, reduced atrophy and improved strength and function
- They are hoping to have FDA approval as an investigative new drug within the next year and a half - this would lead to a Phase One/Two clinical study for patients with Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 by 2023
- Dr. Yousef’s academic background and transitioning to starting her own company
- She has a passion for both drug discovery and taking those inventions to build companies
- The inspiration and motivation behind starting Juvena Therapeutics with co-founder Dr. Jeremy O'Connell, as well as the process of pitching and acquiring funding
- Dr. Yousef was torn between an...