Aethlon Medical Establishes Sepsis & Inflammation Scientific Advisory Board

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Aethlon Medical, Inc. (OTCBB: AEMD), the pioneer in developing selective therapeutic filtration devices to address infectious disease, cancer and other life-threatening conditions, announced today that it has established a Sepsis & Inflammation Scientific Advisory Board to provide guidance on the development of new therapeutics, including a device to reduce the incidence of sepsis in combat-injured soldiers being advanced under a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).  The initial members of the Aethlon Sepsis & Inflammation Scientific Advisory Board are Irshad Chaudry, Ph.D., Charles J. Fisher, Jr., MD and Geert Schmid-Schonbein, Ph.D.

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About Dr. Chaudry
Dr. Chaudry is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal SHOCK®, a leading research publication that reviews novel therapeutic advances to address shock, trauma, sepsis, inflammation, ischemia, and related pathobiological states, with particular emphasis on the biologic mechanisms that determine the response to such injury.  Dr. Chaudry received a B.S. as well as a M.S. with honors from Sind University, and a Ph.D. from Monash University, Australia. After his postdoctoral training at Toronto University, Canada, he was appointed Instructor and subsequently an Assistant Professor at the Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. He then moved to Yale University as an Associate Professor and subsequently became a Professor. He moved to Michigan State University in 1986 as Professor and Director of Research and in 1996 became the Director of the Center for Surgical Research at Brown University. In 2000, he became the Director of the Center for Surgical Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery. He has over 500 publications to his credit and is a recipient of the NIH MERIT award.

About Dr. Fisher
Dr. Fisher, founder & CEO of Margaux Biologics, Inc., is a physician scientist with a distinguished career in both academia and industry spanning over 30 years.  Prior to joining industry, Dr. Fisher served as Professor and Head of Critical Care Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and has held professor, division chief and director positions at the University of California at Davis Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.  His research in sepsis, host defense and endothelial dysfunction led to his assisting in the founding of Incyte, and his later recruitment to Eli Lilly & Co, where he led the Xigris (activated Protein C) Global Product Team and successfully registered the first drug approved for the treatment of sepsis.  He was recruited to Abbott Laboratories as Vice President for Global Pharmaceutical Development and, among other accomplishments, led the registration of Humira (first fully humanized anti-TNF mab).  Other medical firsts include his contributions to the development of, and later approval of, sTNF:fc (Enbrel, 1st soluble anti-TNF tx) and IL-1ra (Kinneret, 1st anti-IL-1 tx).  Dr. Fisher has numerous patents and publications to his credit.  Prior to founding Margaux Biologics, he was Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Cardiome Pharma Corp. where he led the team that invented, developed, registered and sold to Merck ($800M) vernakalant, a novel, first in class, multi-ion channel drug for atrial fibrillation (Brinavess).

Additionally, Dr. Fisher is a decorated, multi tour combat veteran, with extensive military experience in special operations.  He is a Life Member of the Special Operations Medical Association (SOMA), has served as a member of the Defense Science Research Council and on DARPA panels, including one focused on universal host defense. His unique background of direct patient care, basic and clinical research, on the ground combat experience, and leadership at all levels, has led to an exemplary track record of building teams, delivering results, medical firsts and saving lives.

About Dr. Schmid- Schonbein
Dr. Schmid-Schonbein is Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, Adjunct Professor in Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and director of the UCSD Microcirculation Laboratory where he and his team are studying organ injury mechanisms, apoptosis in hypertension, and triggers for inflammation in the blood circulation.  Dr. Schmid-Schonbein earned his Ph.D. in bioengineering from UCSD in 1976. After a three-year post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University, he returned to UCSD in 1979 as an assistant professor.  Some of Dr. Schmid-Schonbein's early research discoveries involved the behavior of infection-fighting white blood cells. Using engineering techniques, he made the first determination of the force with which white blood cells adhere to the walls of blood vessels as part of the initial process of inflammation. Later, Dr. Schmid-Schonbein concluded that the survival of an acutely ill patient can hinge on the degree to which white blood cells are activated. Recently his group discovered a mechanism that leads to activation of white blood cells, which is due to digestive enzymes and may cause cardiovascular disease. Among his many distinctions, Dr. Schmid-Schonbein is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Heart Association. He is a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and winner of the Melville Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.

About Aethlon Medical
The Aethlon Medical mission is to create innovative medical devices that address unmet medical needs in cancer, infectious disease, and other life-threatening conditions. Our Aethlon ADAPT™ System is a revenue-stage technology platform that provides the basis for a new class of therapeutics that target the selective removal of disease enabling particles from the entire circulatory system. The Aethlon ADAPT™ product pipeline includes the Aethlon Hemopurifier® to address infectious disease and cancer; HER2osome™ to target HER2+ breast cancer, and a medical device being developed under a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that would reduce the incidence of sepsis in combat-injured soldiers and civilians. For more information, please visit www.aethlonmedical.com.

Certain of the statements herein may be forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Aethlon Medical, Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the ability for the Company to derive business partnerships or future revenue streams using the Aethlon ADAPT™ system including the ability to introduce a targeted breast cancer therapy known as HER2osome™, there is no assurance that FDA will approve the initiation of the company's clinical programs or provide market clearance of the company's products, the ability to achieve the goals set out in the DARPA contract, future human studies of the Aethlon Hemopurifier® as an adjunct therapy to improve patient responsiveness to established cancer therapies, the company's ability to raise capital when needed, the Company's ability to complete the development of its planned products, the Company's ability to manufacture its products either internally or through outside companies and provide its services, the impact of government regulations, patent protection on the Company's proprietary technology, product liability exposure, uncertainty of market acceptance, competition, technological change, and other risk factors. In such instances, actual results could differ materially as a result of a variety of factors, including the risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions and other risk factors detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Contacts:

James A. Joyce
Chairman and CEO
858.459.7800 x301
[email protected]

Jim Frakes
Chief Financial Officer
858.459.7800 x300
[email protected]

John P. Salvador
Director, Communications
858.459.7800 x307
[email protected]

SOURCE Aethlon Medical, Inc.