Mae Hong, Ph.D.

Mae Hong serves as counsel in the firm's Intellectual Property practice group, assisting clients of all sizes in all aspects related to both domestic and international patent applications, with a particular emphasis in the areas of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and chemistry. Mae counsels clients on patent and infringement defenses and various other intellectual property-related issues and analyzes clients' patent portfolios to help identify and determine patentable subject matter for newly developed technologies. Mae has extensive experience in freedom-to-operate, patent validity, and non-infringement analysis. Mae also has experience in due diligence investigations of intellectual property assets and in post-grant review proceedings. Mae’s technical areas of expertise include genetic engineering, vaccines, immunotherapy, antibodies, diagnostics, disease treatments, genetically modified cells, formulations, cosmetics, cell biology, genetically modified plants, food, etc.   

Prior to joining Lathrop GPM, Mae worked at an IP boutique firm and was previously part of a patent prosecution team at an Am Law 200 general practice firm. During law school, Mae was a legal extern for the United State Patent and Trademark Office at Technology Center 1600. Prior to her legal endeavors, Mae was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas UT Southwestern Medical Center, where her research was pertaining to the signaling pathways in innate immune responses. Mae’s doctoral dissertation research was related to targeted gene therapy of HIV.  

• Co-author, "The role of ubiquitination in Drosophila innate immunity," National Library of Medicine, J Biol Chem. 2005 Oct 7;280(40):34048-55.

• Co-author, "TAB2 and AB3 activate the NF-kappaB pathway through binding to polyubiquitin chains," National Library of Medicine, Mol Cell. 2004 Aug 27;15(4):535-48.

• Co-author, "TAK1 is a ubiquitin-dependent kinase of MKK and IKK," Nature, 412(6844): 346-51.