Meet the Team
Anand Padmanabhan
Chief Science Officer & Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Anand Padmanabhan, MD PhD is a Laboratory Medicine and Transfusion Medicine/Apheresis-trained physician. He received his medical degree from Thanjavur Medical College (India), PhD in Biochemistry from Brown University, and trained in leading programs in Laboratory Medicine (College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University) and Transfusion Medicine/Apheresis (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center). He served on the faculty of the Blood Research Institute of the BloodCenter of Wisconsin for 9+ years and is currently a physician-scientist at the Mayo Clinic. He is funded by the NIH to study Heparin induced Thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (HIT), a major cause of morbidity (30% thrombosis rate) and mortality (10%) in heparin-treated patients. Dr. Padmanabhan's interests include HIT epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment and he has published in these areas in leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Haematology, Blood and Chest.
Steven Visuri
CEO, Board Member
As CEO of Stem Pharm, he has raised $8M to advance novel therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy using a neural organoid discovery platform. Previously, Steve co-founded FloraSeq, which developed one of the first capsule-based microbiome treatments for gastrointestinal diseases. Earlier in his career, he served as CSO and VP of Business Development at Prodesse, leading the FDA clearance of multiple infectious disease diagnostic assays and managing its $72M acquisition by Gen-Probe, later acquired by Hologic.
Steve began his career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, developing innovative medical technologies and securing patents that were successfully out-licensed and became the foundation for multiple startups. An active supporter of Wisconsin’s startup community, he is a member of Golden Angels Investors. He earned his B.S. from Marquette University and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.
VP Research & Innovation
Curtis earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He has led and contributed to key studies on HIT pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment, authoring numerous papers in high-impact journals. In addition he is named inventor on the patent for Retham's platelet cryopreservation technology. With extensive expertise in the technical and scientific aspects of HITDx, Curtis leads its development to help improve the diagnosis of HIT and support patient care.
Meet the Board
Daniel Sem
PhD, MBA, JD
Dr. Sem is President of University Venture Affiliates at CU Ventures and managing partner at Talents Fund. A serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development, he has co-founded multiple biotechnology ventures and helped secure more than $40 million in venture financing. He brings expertise in technology transfer and commercialization to Retham’s Board, with more than 60 scientific publications and 10 issued patents.
Gian Visentin
MD
Dr. Visentin is a co-inventor of the HIT ELISA technology that was sold by Genetic Testing Institute (sold to Genprobe for $53M). He successfully shepherded current market leading HIT assay through regulatory approval, commercialization, and acquisition. He is an active IVD scientific and regulatory consultant.