Melissa Hunter-Ensor, PhD

Practice Areas

Dr. Melissa Hunter-Ensor is Co-Chair of Greenberg Traurig’s Global Patents and Innovation Strategies Group. Melissa focuses her practice on the intellectual property and commercial needs of clients in the life science industry, encompassing pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical agricultural, diagnostics and medical device companies. Melissa has experience representing clients throughout the business cycle, from start-ups and universities to global pharmaceutical companies, with patent portfolio management and strategic alliances, as well as litigation and pre-litigation strategy. She also assists venture capital firms and other investors in assessing the IP risks of target investments and conducts IP patent and licensing due diligence in connection with life science technology transactions.

Career

Before becoming a lawyer, Melissa earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania and her thesis research resulted in a first author paper in Cell. She followed this accomplishment with a four-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory of Nobel laureate H. Robert Horvitz where she was a Jane Coffin Childs fellow.

Professional Memberships

Board Member, Terry’s Foundation for Muscular Dystrophy;

Member, Public Policy Committee, Association of University Technology Managers;

Member, Licensing Executives Society (LES);

Member, Boston Patent Law Association;

Member, Boston Emerging Leaders Group;

Member, Life Science Circle, MIT Enterprise Forum;

Advisor, de la Femme

Education

Work Highlights

- Devised a strategy for protecting and licensing a novel nucleic acid amplification method resulting in patent grant in the U.S. and numerous international jurisdictions in under two years.°

- Developed a worldwide IP portfolio for a privately held company for a biologic agent that was granted an emergency exemption by the Environmental Protection Agency for use in 17 states.°

- Developed a world-wide IP portfolio prosecution strategy for a public company that resulted in patent protection for Alzheimer’s disease, lung cancer, ovarian cancer and peripheral artery disease diagnostics.°

- Crafted an international strategy resulting in granted patents for a local drug delivery device that is in clinical use.°

- Served as a key member of a team assisting a Japanese pharmaceutical company with IP Iicensing due diligence that formed the basis for a multi-billion dollar acquisition of a publicly held biotechnology company.°

- Conducted a patent landscape analysis on behalf of multiple university clients that informed their licensing negotiations with venture capital investors resulting in the successful formation of a university-licensed start-up.°

- Advised an international pharmaceutical company in licensing exclusive, worldwide rights for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of a polynucleotide-based therapeutic. °