About Us
Treating, improving, and extending patients’ lives.
Our Vision
We are a clinical-stage biotech company dedicated to transforming outcomes in cardiothoracic surgical patients.
Renibus’ first-in-class lead program, RBT-1 (stannic protoporfin/iron sucrose), is a potent inducer of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant pathways. RBT-1 (stannic protoporfin/iron sucrose) has finished its Phase 2 development in cardiac surgery and will soon enter a Phase 3 registration study for its lead indication to reduce the risk of postoperative complications following cardiothoracic surgery.
RBT-3 (iron sucrose), a novel, low molecular weight iron nanoparticle, is one component of RBT-1 (stannic protoporfin/iron sucrose) and is targeted at rapidly resolving anemia and reducing the risk of cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity and will be in Phase 2 clinical development in 2023.
RBT-9 (stannic protoporfin) is the other component of RBT-1, is a potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant drug with select anti-viral properties. It has been in Phase 1 / 2 and is currently being evaluated for a future Phase 2 program.
RBT-2 is an antioxidant and anti-fibrotic drug that has been shown to reduce the risk of CKD progression in preclinical models. Currently in lead formulation stage.
Our Leadership Team
Frank Stonebanks
- Current: Wavemaker 360 Health Special Advisor
- Former:
- Founder / CEO / General Partner at Triphase LP (lead asset acquired in 2016 by Celgene (BMS)
- Founder / CEO at Zosano Pharma (ZSAN: NASDAQ) spun out from J&J
- Senior Advisor, NovaQuest Capital Management
- Venture Partner, Lumira Ventures
- CBO, Head of Investment Fund, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
- Senior Advisor / Fund of Funds Co-Manager, IBM, Healthcare M&A Head
- VP Investments / GM, J&J (Johnson & Johnson investment arm, JJDC)
- Head of Licensing, NABI Biopharmaceuticals
- Global Product Manager, Sanofi
D. Jeff Keyser, RPh, JD, PhD
- Co-founder and COO at ZS Pharma, acquired by Astra Zeneca in 2015 for $2.7 billion.
- Inventor of the Mucinex product line for Adams Respiratory Therapeutics. He developed and executed the R&D and Regulatory strategy as VP of Development and Regulatory Affairs, which subsequently was acquired by Reckitt Benckiser for $2.3 billion in 2007.
- Senior positions at Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Medeva Americas, Marion Merrell Dow and Abbott Laboratories. He is currently serving as the Chairman of the Board for Lantern Pharma.
Bhupinder Singh, MD
Dr. Bhupinder Singh is one of the co-founders of Renibus Therapeutics. He serves as the Chief Medical Officer and Board Director of the company. Dr. Singh is an Internist, Nephrologist, and a Clinical Specialist in Hypertension.
He is an adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. He has an extensive background in Clinical Practice, Research, and Development for almost 30 years. He graduated from Armed Forces Medical College and obtained further training at Henry Ford Health System and SUNY Upstate Medical University.
He was previously Vice President of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Allakos, Scientific Advisor to Cricket Health, Executive Director of Research and Medical Affairs at ZS Pharma (AstraZeneca), Chief Medical Office at Apex Research, Co-founder and Vice President of Clinical Affairs and Head of Research at Southwest Kidney Institute. He is also a Founder of Nephcentric, and an Evidence-Based Nutraceutical Company in the Kidney and Electrolyte Space.
Jamie A. Donadio
Asha Ramdas
Asha joins Renibus from Amgen, where she spent nine years in various senior leadership roles, most recently as Vice President, Commercialization, Program and Portfolio Management. In that role, she was responsible for prioritization of the portfolio, as well as guiding early and late-stage product teams in the development and execution of their strategies. While at Amgen, as Global Product General Manager of tezepelumab, she successfully led the severe asthma asset through its critical Phase 2/3 transition and development of the Phase 3 clinical program approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December 2021. Prior to Amgen, Asha held senior operational roles at several small and large companies including Geron Corporation, Zosano Pharma, and Johnson & Johnson. Ms. Ramdas holds an M.A., Chemistry, from Mount Holyoke College and an M.S., Polymer Chemistry, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Board of Directors
Henrik Rasmussen, MD, PhD
He was the Senior Vice President for Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs at British Biotech and Global Study Director for Cardiovascular Drug Development at Pfizer Central Research. Dr. Rasmussen has led numerous global development programs and regulatory filings worldwide, including INDs, clinical trial applications (CTAs), NDAs, supplemental new drug applications (sNDAs), biologic license applications (BLAs), and MMA filings. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in the therapeutic areas of Nephrology, Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Gastroenterology and Diabetes.
Carlos Guillem, MBA, PhD
Dr. Guillem started his professional career as a pilot, and then served 20 years as a pilot and Director of Operations, overseeing regulatory compliance of safety and standards. He later transitioned into entrepreneurship by founding North Texas Distillers and developing a number of consumer products, which led to a successful transaction a few years later.
He later joined the founding team at Western Son Distillery, where he serves as the Chief Operations and Finance Officer, managing $40mm in revenue, 200+ employees, multiply sites, with domestic and international operations. The team has developed Western Son Distillery to being one of the best performing brands in the industry while winning multiple HOT Brand and HOT Impact awards.
As a co-founding member of CarGin Enterprises, Dr. Guillem has helped raise over $100mm in capital rounds of financing and co-invested in a number of companies in the pharmaceutical industry. He has also served on a number of boards, transitioning out as teams are built and the business is developed.
Dr. Guillem holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management, a Masters in Business Administration, and a doctorate in business administration, and is currently in his third year of law school as he pursues his Juris Doctorate.
Scientific Advisors
Alpesh Amin, MD
Alpesh Amin, MD, MBA, MACP, SFHM, FACC, FHFSA, FRCP (Lond) is with the University of California–Irvine (UCI) in the capacity of the Tom and Mary Cesario Chairman, Department of Medicine. He is Professor of Medicine, Business, Public Health, Nursing, and Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine. He is also founder and executive director of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Amin has served as Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Quality for 12 years, Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine for 6 years, Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program for 14 years, and Medicine Clerkship Director for 14 years. Dr. Amin obtained his MD degree at Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois, and later he completed his internship and his residencies in internal medicine, including a chief residency, at UCI. Also at UCI, he earned a healthcare MBA. Dr. Amin is the first Hospitalist to be named Chief of a Division of GIM, and then subsequently the first Hospitalist to be named Chairman of a Department of Medicine nationally.
Dr. Amin started his career as a Biomedical/Process/Implementation Engineer at Cholestech designing the drying machine and package insert for an office-based cholesterol measuring device. He also served as co-Founder, Board of Director, and Chief Financial Officer of Power Savers Electronics for 3 years. Throughout his medical career, Dr. Amin has been innovative in clinical, quality, and educational program development. He advised the Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar on Quality Improvement efforts across eight hospitals under the national health ministry council. He has developed processes to improve patient care delivery looking at ways to reduce readmission and avoidable admissions, as well as improvements in length of stay, mortality, and customer service. Dr. Amin is an expert in implementation science and measuring outcomes to improve sustainable long-lasting results. He is founder of UCI’s Empowering Patient Progression initiatives. He also applies information technology to improve the delivery of care through development of projects such as NHCPlus, eConsults, Apps for Safe Anticoagulation Use, VSS Covid-19 Risk Stratification Tool, and others. He is one of the co-founders and Associate Director for ITEQC, Program of Research in Translational Technology Enabling High Quality Care.
During his career, Dr. Amin has served as principal investigator, co-investigator, and faculty sponsor on clinical trials and research projects focusing on clinical topics such as VTE, pneumonia, heart failure, and Covid-19. His research interest is in health outcomes related to patient safety & quality improvement and medical education. Dr. Amin’s leadership in integrating clinical care, innovations in delivery of care, and outcomes of care was demonstrated by his leading the Covid-19 efforts across UCI Health to the lowest mortality for Covid-19 patients nationally. He is a member of professional organizations as the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), the American College of Physicians (ACP), the Society of General Internal
Medicine (SGIM), Academic Chiefs and Leaders of General Internal Medicine (ACLGIM), Academic Alliance of Internal Medicine (AAIM), and Association of Professors of Medicine (APM). Dr. Amin has authored or co-authored over 270 peer-reviewed articles. He is the co-editor/co-author of the Core Competencies for Hospital Medicine by SHM. He served as Chair of SHM’s Education Committee for 4 years, the 2006 SHM Annual Meeting Course Director, and was on the SHM’s Board of Directors. Dr. Amin was Associate Editor of Hospital Medicine Secrets. Dr. Amin is also co-editor of the book Contemporary Hospitalist Guide to Anticoagulation and OB/GYN Hospital Medicine. Dr. Amin has also served as President of the California/Hawaii Region of SGIM, Councilor of ACLGIM, Governor of ACP, and President of APM. Dr. Amin has served as President of UCI Medical Center Medical Staff.
Among Dr. Amin’s numerous awards and honors include the American College of Physicians Special Recognition Award, a Masters of the ACP, a Senior Fellow of SHM, Fellow of ACC, Fellow of HFSA, and Fellow of RCP (London), named as one of “America’s Top Physicians” by the Consumers’ Research Council of America, Orange County Physician of Excellence Award, and ACP’s Top 10 Hospitalist Award. Dr. Amin has won the Physician of the Year Award for the Indian Medical Association of Southern California (IMASC) and for the Orange County Medical Association (OCMA). Dr. Amin is also the recipient of the Alfred Soffer Award from the ACCP, the Venous Research Award for Quality Improvement and Implementation of Best Practices from the Venous Disease Coalition (VDC)/Vascular Disease Foundation (VDF), Exceptional Leadership Award by ALCGIM, CDC’s HA-VTE Prevention Champion, and HMC’s Stars of Excellence Award. He founded and directs the UCI Anticoagulation Clinic which is recognized nationally as an AC Forum Center of Excellence for many years repeatedly. Dr. Amin has also been selected as a nominee for Modern Healthcare’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.
Rakesh Arora, BA, MD, PhD
University Hospitals (UH) Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute has a rich history of providing the highest level of care for patients. Continuing as leaders in this field and elevating cardiac surgery patient care to a new level, UH announces the addition of Rakesh Arora, MD, PhD, FRCSC, FACS, a world leader in perioperative care and management of cardiac surgery patients. Dr. Arora serves as Director of UH Harrington HVI Perioperative and Cardiac Critical Care and as Research Director in the Division of Cardiac Surgery.
Javed Butler, MD
Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, is the President of the Baylor Scott and White Research Institute and Senior Vice President for the Baylor Scott and White Health. He is also the Distinguished Professor of Medicine at University of Mississippi in Jackson, MS. Prior to joining Baylor Scott and White Health, he served as the Patrick H. Lehan Chair in Cardiovascular Research, and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi, where he was also Professor of Physiology. Prior to joining the University of Mississippi, he was Charles A. Gargano Professor and Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Co-Director of the Heart Institute at Stony Brook University, New York. He had served as the director for heart failure research at Emory University and director of the heart and heart-lung transplant programs at Vanderbilt University prior to that.
He received his medical degree from the Aga Khan University and then completed residency training at Yale University, cardiology fellowship and advanced heart failure and transplant fellowships at Vanderbilt University, and cardiac imaging fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital at the Harvard Medical School. He has completed Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University and a Master in Business Administration from the Emory University.
Dr. Butler is board certified in cardiovascular medicine and advanced heart failure and transplant medicine. His research interests focus on clinical trials in patients with heart failure. He serves on several national committees for the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health, and the Heart Failure Society of America. He is the recipient of the Simon Dack Award by the American College of Cardiology as well as the Time, Feeling, and Focus Award by the American Heart Association.
Dr. Butler has authored more than 875 peer-reviewed publications. He serves on the editorial board of several peer reviewed cardiovascular journals. He has been cited numerous times in America’s Best Doctors list.
Andre Lamy, MD,MSc
Dr. Andre Lamy is a cardiac surgeon and a Professor in the Department of Surgery at McMaster University. He is also a scientist at the Population Health Research Institute in Hamilton.
Dr. Lamy was the PI of the CORONARY trial, a large multi centered randomized trial of off-pump CABG surgery versus on-pump CABG surgery. Dr. Lamy is also leading the COMPASS-CABG, a RCT evaluating the benefits of rivaroxaban for graft patency after CABG surgery as well as VISION-Cardiac surgery, a prospective analysis of 15,000 patients to determine the cut-off value and prognostic factor of high sensitivity troponin essays after cardiac surgery. Dr. Lamy also has expertise in health economics and published for COMPASS, TIPS-3, HOPE-3 and more.
Kevin W. Lobdell, MD
Dr. Lobdell is board certified in thoracic surgery and has special qualifications in surgical critical care. His research interests include risk models, assessment, and mitigation strategies, telemedicine and digital health, acute kidney injury, goal-directed therapy, metabolic response to injury and sepsis, early extubation, effects of BMI on CV outcomes, euglycemia, and aortic dissection. He has authored > 80 peer-reviewed articles and chapters on quality, safety, and various clinical subjects and presented > 170 times at regional, national, and international forums. He led the Perfect Care initiative (a $1.11 million grant from the Duke Endowment) and is a reviewer and editor for various journals and societies.
Dr. Lobdell was Chair of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Workforce on Research Development and on the Council on Quality, Research, and Patient Safety and continues to serve on various boards and leadership of various professional societies, to include the research committee for the Thoracic Surgery Foundation and as a Section Editor of SESATS for the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Lobdell also serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserves.
Patrick T. Murray, MD, FASN, FRCPI, FJFICMI
Dr. Patrick Murray is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at University College Dublin, and a consultant physician at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
Dr. Murray is Chair of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Drugs and Therapeutics Committee and Clinical Director of the University College Dublin Clinical Research Centre. He is board-certified in nephrology, critical care medicine, and clinical pharmacology, with a longstanding interest in research and education to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of acute kidney injury and nephrotoxicity, as well as the pharmacotherapy of patients with kidney disease.
He received his medical education at University College Dublin.
Hamid Rabb, MD
Dr. Hamid Rabb is Professor of Medicine & Surgery at Johns Hopkins University, and Medical Director of Kidney & Vascular Composite Transplant at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has a long-standing research interest in elucidating the immune mechanisms underlying acute kidney injury, and inter-organ cross talk during acute kidney injury. He is also active in translational studies taking basic science discoveries towards helping patients with kidney diseases.
He graduated from McGill University School of Medicine, and completed his internal medicine residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He trained in clinical Nephrology followed by basic Immunology research training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He has received academic, leadership and mentoring awards including the 2022 International Society of Nephrology biennial Bywaters award for acute kidney injury.
Andrew Shaw, MD, FRCA, FCCM, FFICM
Dr. Shaw is Chairman, Department of Intensive Care and Resuscitation at The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (UK), a Fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine and a Fellow of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (UK). He also holds a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Management from Vanderbilt University. He has practiced cardiothoracic anesthesiology and critical care medicine for more than 25 years in the UK, USA and Canada, and has authored 4 textbooks and more than 225 original publications, with an h-index of 70. His clinical practice is cardiothoracic, surgical intensive care and perioperative medicine. His translational research interests include biomarker discovery in acute illness and injury. His clinical research interests include observational and pragmatic interventional trials of candidate interventions to prevent and treat adverse outcomes following cardiac surgery, in particular the role of intravenous fluid therapy in acute kidney injury. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Defense, private philanthropy and by industry. He is the President of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists and a founder Director of the Peri Operative Quality Initiative.
Alexander Zarbock, MD, PhD
Dr. Alexander Zarbock is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University of Münster and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine at the University Hospital Münster. His research interest comprises experimental as well as clinical studies, including biomarkers of AKI, prevention and treatment of AKI, and different aspects of renal replacement therapy.
He is principal investigator of several interventional multicenter trials, which included cardiac surgery and critically ill patients.
Norman S. Coplon Satellite Healthcare Professor in Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Stanford University School of Medicine
Glenn M. Chertow, MD, MPH
Dr. Chertow, MD, MPH, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, Dr. Chertow served with distinction on the faculties at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (1995-98) and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) (1998-2007). Dr. Chertow has established a successful career as a clinical investigator and continues to maintain a productive research program focused on improving care for persons with acute and chronic kidney disease. Recent projects include several NIDDK-sponsored initiatives: Acute Renal Failure Trials Network (ATN) Study, the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Special Studies Center in Nutrition, the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study and the Frequent Hemodialysis Network (FHN) study. Dr. Chertow was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015, one of the only nephrologists among the academy’s more than 2,000 distinguished members who are elected in recognition of professional achievement and commitment to service. He was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 2004 and appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Kidney Foundation in 2007. He was Vice Chair and member of two workgroups for the Kidney Disease Quality Outcomes Initiative (K/DOQI) and Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Dr. Chertow has authored more than 400 medical publications, and is an editor of the 9th edition of Brenner & Rector’s The Kidney. Dr. Chertow also received the 2007 National Torchbearer Award from the American Kidney Fund for his career-long contributions toward improving the lives of persons with kidney disease. Dr. Chertow received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, his Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in epidemiology and biostatistics, performed his residency and fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and is board certified in nephrology. His major medical research interests include clinical epidemiology, health services research, decision sciences, and clinical trials in acute and chronic kidney disease.
Laboratory of Basic
and Translational Research
Seattle, WA
Renibus’ translational lab, led by Dr. Richard Zager, keeps Renibus one step ahead of others in terms of innovating. This small, flexible and very efficient lab enables Renibus to get quick answers to important questions and explore new areas without the time and cost of outsourcing.
Richard A. Zager, MD
Dr. Richard Zager is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at UCLA and the University of Washington Medical School, and his Nephrology training at Boston University and Harvard Medical School. He served as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center for over 35 years, and he is currently a Professor Emeritus at both institutions. He is a board-certified internist and nephrologist and has had extensive clinical experience in internal medicine, nephrology, and ICU medicine.
For the past 35 years Dr. Zager’s research has focused on the pathophysiology and treatment of acute kidney injury. His work has been supported by 35 years of grant support from the National Institutes of Health as well as by sponsored research agreements with multiple pharmaceutical companies. His work has resulted in over 200 peer-reviewed articles which have been published in major nephrology, and basic science, journals (e.g., Journal of Clinical Investigation, Proceedings National Academy of Science.) This work has described injury-induced kidney tubular cell alterations which subsequently lead the emergence of the issue resistance to further damage (i.e., so called tissue “preconditioning”). Over the past 5 years, Dr. Zager has worked to translate this “preconditioning” phenomenon to the clinical arena. This effort has led to the development of both RBT-1 and RBT-3 which can evoke the preconditioning state. Through his work with Renibus Therapeutics, these basic laboratory observations are being tested in a variety of clinical settings.
Ali C.M. Johnson, MS
Ali Johnson is an experienced Staff Scientist with over two decades of experience in basic and translational research, clinical research, and nephrology-focused clinical research. Currently, Ms. Johnson is focused on designing therapeutic strategies which utilize the cytoprotective mechanisms of cellular preconditioning. Prior to Renibus, Ms. Johnson was a Staff Scientist and Research Technician Supervisor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle, WA. Ms. Johnson has also been an author on over 50 research publications, with particular expertise in nephrology. She holds a BS in Biotechnology from Eastern Washington University and a Masters of Science in Agriculture from Washington State University.
