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                    BIOINFORMATICS COLLOQUIUM
               School of Computational Sciences
                    George Mason University
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        Setting the Pace in the Next Generation of Drug Discovery

                      Meena Augustus, Ph.D.
                     Avalon Pharmaceuticals
                         Germantown, MD

                 Tuesday, October 25, 2005
                             4:30 pm
           Verizon Auditorium, Prince William Campus
 
Biosketch
	Dr. Meena Augustus, Ph.D., is a co-founder of Avalon 
Pharmaceuticals Inc. a biotech company, located in Germantown, MD, 
using cutting edge, revolutionary drug and target discovery approaches 
in cancer. As Senior Scientific Director, she oversaw the efforts of 
the Molecular Genetics and Oncology group since the company’s inception 
in 2000 to November 2002 and was instrumental to the development of 
Avalon’s Amplicon and Biorepository databases.  She currently oversees 
Strategic Scientific Alliances for Avalon, initiating and establishing 
several key scientific, academic and clinical collaborations for the 
company, both domestic and international.  Currently, Dr. Augustus also 
serves as an honorary member on the Advisory Boards of the BioIT 
coalition in Washington DC (www.bioitcoalition.org) and Shreis 
Cardiotech Inc., (www.shreis.com)  in Maryland.
	During her career, Dr. Augustus has served in premier research 
institutions in India, Germany, France and the U.S and has been the 
recipient of the prestigious, German Academic Exchange Service and 
Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships to pursue her commitment to the 
study of cancer genetics and clinical oncology.  For 18 years she was a 
member of the oncology faculty in a UICC-affiliated, 250-bedded 
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, from1994-1998 
combining it with a sabbatical as a Special Volunteer with the Fogarty 
International Center, at the NIH.  Dr. Augustus has held a visiting 
scientist position at Human Genome Sciences Inc., in Rockville, MD 
where she individually mapped more than a 100 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 
recently launched 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. 
                            

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Refreshments are served at 4:00 pm. Find the schedule and directions at
http://www.binf.gmu.edu/colloq.html