Juvena Therapeutics

Juvena Therapeutics is a private, preclinical-stage biotech founded in 2018 and headquartered in Redwood City, California. The company has developed a proprietary AI-powered platform to systematically map the therapeutic potential of secreted proteins and engineer them into biologics aimed at restoring tissue homeostasis. Its lead program, JUV-161 for Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1, has received FDA Orphan Drug Designation and entered first-in-human trials in 2025, supported by a significant research collaboration with Eli Lilly. Juvena is targeting a broad range of degenerative conditions associated with unhealthy aging.

An integrated, AI-enabled platform that mines a library of secreted proteins from human stem cells, uses in silico mapping and human cell screening to identify hits, validates them in vivo, and engineers them into novel biologic therapeutics.

Juvena competes in the muscle health and metabolic disease space with large pharma (e.g., Lilly, Novo Nordisk) and other biotechs developing therapies for sarcopenia, obesity, and rare myopathies. Its differentiation lies in its unique AI-driven platform focused on the secretome, aiming to discover entirely new biologic mechanisms beyond traditional targets.