Meena Augustus
is Co-Founder, CEO & CSO for Shréis-Scalene Sciences LLC and
Shreis Scalene Therapeutics LLC (N. & S. America Mexico & the
Caribbean), located in Gaithersburg, Maryland and SSS-Canada
Inc. in Montreal (CA) (www.shreis.com).
SSS is focused on bringing to the US and global markets, a
patented CE and CAMCDAS certified innovative therapeutic device,
the Cytotron® that deploys non-invasive and non-ionizing
rotational field quantum magnetic resonance (RFQMR) for the
treatment of all solid tumors, musculoskeletal diseases like
Osteoarthritis and Neurodegenerative diseases like Multiple
Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Stroke etc. Under her scientific
guidance & fund raising efforts with the President & COO, a
project to treat recurrent drug/radiation resistant Glioblastoma
with the CYTOTRON® was awarded a quarter million USD grant,
under
the U.S. Government’s Qualifying
Therapeutic Discovery Project (“QTDP”) program,
in 2010. The Cytotron also has broad applications in tissue
engineering and multi organ wound healing. An innovative drug
delivery extension of this platform technology has been
leveraged in a unique drug/device pairing approach with cancer
chemotherapeutics, which Shreis Scalene Therapeutics LLC is
offering. As Co-Founder, VP & CSO of Shreis Scalene Cardiotech,
Dr. Augustus is pursuing clinical collaborations for a CE
marked, non-invasive, diagnostic cardiovascular device-the
Hemoseis 256 that is also being introduced in the N. & S.
American continent. In Oct 2010, a renewable energy company,
Shreis Scalene Greenergy LLC (www.ss-greenergy.com)
was also registered by Shreis founders.
Meena Augustus
is a cancer geneticist by background. She co-founded Avalon
Pharmaceuticals Inc.,-a biotech company, located in Germantown,
MD, that pioneered revolutionary biomarker-driven drug and
target discovery in cancer. She was integral to the management
team that raised seed capital and 80M in private equity in the
early years of the company, and saw Avalon through an IPO in Nov
2005. As Senior Scientific Director, she oversaw the efforts of
the Molecular Genetics and Oncology group since the company’s
inception in 2000 and was instrumental to the development of
Avalon’s Amplicon and Biorepository databases and drug response
biomarker signatures. She also oversaw Strategic Scientific
Alliances for Avalon, between 2003-2006, initiating and
establishing several key scientific, academic and clinical
collaborations for the company, both domestic and
international. Dr. Augustus’ independent US-based company,
CanCure Consulting LLC, (www.cancureconsulting.com)
offered Pharmaceutical R &D consulting services to the Federal
Government-National Cancer Institute’s Nanotechnology Program,
helping to accelerate the development of cancer nano-therapeutics,
for three consecutive years (2007-2010). During her career, Dr.
Augustus has served in premier research institutions in India,
Germany, France and U.S and has been the recipient of the
prestigious German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in 1984 to
pursue her commitment to the study of cancer genetics and
clinical oncology in Erlangen, Germany. She and was awarded
Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship in 1994 which could not be
utilized due to conflict with a diplomatic posting to Washington
DC at the same time. For 18 years she was a member of the
oncology faculty in an UICC-affiliated, 250-bed Comprehensive
Cancer Research, Treatment and Teaching Hospital in Bangalore,
India, eventually serving as Professor and Head, Department of
Cell-biology & Pathology. During that time, she played a key
role in a large scale WHO-sponsored cancer detection and
screening program in Karnataka, India and was a co-investigator
in a multi-institutional Indo-US (NCI-sponsored) study on the
molecular characterization of lymphoid neoplasia. She
accompanied her husband on his diplomatic assignment to the
Embassy of India in Washington DC, from 1994-1998 combining it
with a sabbatical as a Special Volunteer with the Fogarty
International Center, at the NIH in Bethesda, USA. Dr. Augustus
has held a visiting scientist position at Human Genome Sciences
Inc., in Rockville, MD where she individually mapped more than
100 new human genes to their chromosomal locations. She also
served as a consultant at the Center for Prostate Disease
Research (USUHS/Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement
of Military Medicine) in Rockville, MD, where she pioneered a
study on the molecular cytogenetic analysis of prostate cancer.
During 1997-1999, Dr. Augustus was a visiting scientist in the
Lymphoma Biology Section-Pediatric Branch and the Cancer
Genetics Group (NCI/NIH), and the Genome Technology Branch (NHGRI-NIH)
in Bethesda, MD. She played a key role in the design and
development of the NCI and NCBI SKY/CGH Interactive Online
(Cytogenetic) Database, a public resource that will enable the
compilation and analysis of chromosome aberrations in cancer,
both human and mouse (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sky/skyweb.cgi).
She is an active
AACR and ASCO member and served on the scientific advisory board
of the BioIT Coalition in Washington DC (www.bioitcoalition.org).
She was Executive Partner with HealthCare Global (HCG-Oncology)
Enterprises Ltd., and Triesta Sciences Inc. (March ‘06-March
’09) located in Bangalore, India, (www.hcgoncology.com),
serving more than 15000 cancer patients annually. As Scientific
Advisor to Triesta-a reference molecular oncology Unit of HCG
Dr. Augustus coordinated, designed and oversaw biomarker driven
contracts research & outsourced clinical trials to India, with
some of the top 10 large pharma companies.
Prof. Augustus
earned an M.S. in Zoology in 1974 and a Ph.D. in Human Genetics
in 1979, from India. She has several biotech related patents and
a significant publication record of original articles in peer
reviewed journals, text book chapters and invited talks in key
scientific and industrial forums.
