Nicole Sassu, Ph.D.

Nicole Sassu is a registered patent attorney with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry. She focuses her practice on patent law in the pharmaceutical and chemical arts. Her practice includes US patent preparation, US and foreign patent prosecution, global patent portfolio management, freedom-to-operate analyses, and due diligence work. Her work focuses on the entire timeline of pharmaceutical development, from initial filings on composition of matter/novel chemical entities to second-generation filings directed toward salt forms, prodrugs, polymorph crystal forms, metabolites, formulations, degraders, antibody-drug conjugates, administration routes, combination therapies, dosages, synthetic routes, etc. Nicole also has experience in preparing patent applications related to siRNA, oligonucleotides, solid state electrolytes, enzymatic templates, and photoswitches.

Nicole’s research background is in medicinal and process chemistry. Nicole received her doctorate at the University of Connecticut working in the Howell lab. While at UConn, Nicole worked under a multimillion-dollar research grant from the National Institutes of Health, where she generated a library of glycosphingolipid analogs. These immunostimulatory compounds were explored as both cancer therapies and vaccine adjuvants. Nicole also gained industrial experience as an intern at Boehringer Ingelheim in the process chemistry department. Under the guidance of Dr. Jonathan Reeves, Nicole developed a novel, titanium-free method of generating chiral N-substituted ketimines. These compounds are considered highly useful synthetic intermediates for stereoselective induction of asymmetry in active pharmaceutical ingredients.

• Presenter, Synthesis of Carbohydrate Modified Analogs of α-Galactosyl-ceramides for Th1 Biased iNKT Cell Activation, Gordon Research Conference: Organic Reactions and Processes, 2017
• Presenter, Synthesis of Naphthyridine/Azaquinolone Analogs for the Disruption of TNR Expansions in the Base Excision Repair Mechanism, ACS Meeting, 2013

• Co-Author, Pd-Catalyzed Acyl C-O Bond Activation for Selective Ring-Opening on a-Methylene-b-lactones with Amines, Organic Letters, 2017
• Co-Author, Cross Dehyrogenative Coupling of N-Aryltetrahydroisoquinolines (sp3 C-H) with Indoles (sp2 C-H) Using Heterogeneous Mesoporous Manganese Oxide Catalyst, Green Chemistry, 2017

• American Chemical Society, 2013 – Present
• Phi Lambda Upsilon: Alpha Phi Chapter, 2013 – Present
• Sigma Xi Research Honor Society, 2013

• Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2017
• Graduate Student Travel Award Recipient, 2017
• Three Minute Thesis Competition, Second Place Recipient, 2016
• Undergraduate Research Grant, 2011-2013