Colleen McKiernan has been a patent agent for more than 20 years. She has extensive experience managing complex global patent portfolios from working both at law firms and in-house at various biotechnology companies. She offers strategic advice on the protection and commercialization of innovative technologies. While in-house, Colleen managed the prosecution of multiple patent families in conjunction with academic and commercial collaborators to provide commercially relevant claims in joint and in-licensed applications while allowing for the protection of internal innovations in the company’s wholly owned filings. Colleen has worked with multidisciplinary teams, contributing to the development of both commercial products and those in clinical stages, including performing freedom to operate and patentability analyses at various stages of development. Her experience in the biotechnology sector enables her clients to navigate the complexities of patent law and bring innovative solutions to market.
Colleen has significant expertise in nucleic acid therapeutics, having worked at three platform-based therapeutics companies directed to antisense oligonucleotides, small interfering RNA (siRNA), and CRISPR technologies. This work has provided insights into concerns particular to platform companies and the protection of both platform and product-specific innovations.
Prior to becoming a patent agent, Colleen was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in a laboratory directed to ocular angiogenesis and a graduate student at the University of Vermont in a laboratory directed to small G-proteins.
