Biography

Nicole Ballew Chang is a patent agent in the Pasadena, California office of Christie, Parker & Hale, LLP. Dr. Ballew Chang prosecutes patents in biotechnology and the life sciences, including pharmaceuticals, methods in molecular/cellular biology and immunology, and small molecule chemistry. In addition to prosecution at the USPTO, Dr. Ballew Chang's patent experience has included attendance and participation at Oral Proceedings at the European Patent Office, as well as prosecution in many foreign jurisdictions.

Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Ballew Chang was a technical specialist/patent agent at Ladas & Parry, LLP for three years. After obtaining her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Dartmouth College in 2003, she was a Scientific Writer with GlycoFi, Inc (2003-2005) where she assisted with patent drafting and prosecution, as well as authoring several articles.

Dr. Ballew Chang obtained her doctoral training researching the protein mechanisms in ER to Golgi transport in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Specifically, she studied the tethering of vesicles to the Golgi through the Rab GTPase, upstream of SNARE pairing and vesicle fusion.

Admitted

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Education

• Ph.D. degree from Dartmouth College, 2003
• B.S. degree cum laude in Biochemistry from Claremont McKenna College, 1994.

Publications

Li H, . . . Ballew N, . . Gerngross TU. "Optimization of Humanized IgGs in Glycoengineered Pichia pastoris," Nature Biotechnol,Vol. 24, 210-215, January 2006.

Nicole Ballew, Yiting Liu, Charles Barlowe. "A Rab Requirement Not Bypassed in SLY1-20 Suppression," Molecular Biology of the Cell,Vol 16, 1839-1849, April 2005.

Nicole Ballew. "Revolutionising protein production in fungi, " Innovations in Pharmaceutical Technology, Biotechnology Section, 70-76, June 2004.

Nicole Ballew and Tillman Gerngross. "Production of therapeutic proteins in fungal hosts," Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, Vol. 4, No. 5, 623-626, May 2004.

Nicole L. Ballew. "Affinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc: Structure-Guided Drug Discovery," Chemistry & Biology, Vol. 11, 583-584, May 2004.

Nicole L. Ballew. "Benitec, Ltd. Gene Silencing from Down Under," Chemistry & Biology, Vol. 11, 285-286, March 2004.

Nicole L. Ballew. "Tools for Nanoscience at McGill University, Sometimes Smaller is Better," Chemistry & Biology, Vol. 11, 1-2 January, 2004.

Nicole L. Ballew. "Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Maintaining Function Goes a Long Way," Chemistry & Biology, Vol. 10, 1003-1004, November 2003.

Nicole Louise Ballew. "Tethering of COPII Vesicles to the Golgi Complex in Saccharomyces cerevisiae," Doctoral Thesis. Dartmouth College, June 23, 2003.

Nicole L. Ballew. "Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., Soporific Science," Chemistry & Biology, Vol. 10, 371-372, May 2003.

Xiaochun Cao, Nicole Ballew and Charles Barlowe. "Initial docking of ER-derived vesicles requires Uso1p and Ypt1p but is independent of SNARE proteins," EMBO J. Vol. 17, 2156-2165, April, 1998.