Juha Punnonen, MD, PhD, is a co-founder and CEO of STATegics, Inc. He has 20 years of experience in growth factors and cytokines and an extensive track record in biotechnology with experience in building and managing R&D teams from discovery to development. Prior to launching STATegics in 2007, he served as vice president of R&D and head of biology and pharmacology at Maxygen, a company that develops next-generation protein therapeutics and vaccines. Before joining Maxygen in 1997, he was a scientist at DNAX Research Institute (Schering-Plough), a company involved in discovery and development of cytokine therapeutics. Earlier, he did his postdoctoral training at the Human Immunology Department of DNAX.

Prior to DNAX, he worked as a clinician in internal medicine and as a family physician. Dr. Punnonen has 85 scientific publications, 23 issued patents, and he received MD and PhD (immunology) degrees from the University of Turku, Finland, in 1989.