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USPTO Program Seeks to Educate, Encourage, and Support Women Entrepreneurs
While the ranks of women entrepreneurs and founders continue to grow, they lag far behind their male counterparts as business […]
Brent Nix’s veteran perspective, decades of real-world experience in science and technology, and proven legal skills make him the “go-to” advisor for creating, enforcing, licensing, and monetizing patent portfolios in the U.S. and abroad.
As head of JMIN’s Biotech-Chemistry practice, Brent draws from his extensive multidisciplinary background to develop and implement intellectual property strategies that proactively minimize client risk while maximizing the value of their IP investments. Brent delivers strategic legal solutions tailored to each client’s unique definition of success. His practice includes U.S. and international patent prosecution, licensing, and portfolio management across myriad scientific innovations involving research centers and institutes, inventors, start-ups, university technology transfer offices, mid-size companies, and Fortune 500 corporations.
In addition, Brent advises clients and corporate boutique law firms involved in the due diligence phase of mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, and investment funding. He provides comprehensive patentability studies, competitive landscape analysis, and freedom to operate and invalidity opinions that empower his clients to make informed choices and proceed confidently.
The breadth of Brent’s academic and professional experience allows him to advise on a wide range of technologies and disciplines, including:
- Gene editing enzymes and corresponding expression and delivery constructs.
- Single-cell analysis systems and assays.
- NGS technologies and assay platforms.
- Microfluidic devices for various “omics”-related applications.
- Liquid biopsy, exosome, and cfDNA-based detection systems and assays.
- 3D culture devices and related scaffold and support materials.
- Diagnostic systems and constructs for various disease and microbial detection purposes, including amplification-, sequencing-, and probe-based assays and imaging modalities.
- Epigenetic assays and related constructs.
- Particle and viral-based delivery systems.
- Live cell imaging and sampling technologies.
- Xenograft models.
- Adoptive cell transfer and CAR T therapies.
- Vaccine and peptide-based therapeutics for neurodegenerative, cancer, autoimmune, and ocular diseases.
- Small molecule therapeutics for cancer, neurodegenerative, autoimmune, and ocular diseases.
- Computer-based methods for single-cell analysis, imaging-based classification, antigen prediction, and HLA and TCR typing.
Before Becoming a Lawyer
Brent worked as a patent agent while earning his Juris Doctor from Georgia State University School of Law. He received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducting research in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and studying the binding kinetics of the oncogenic protein Ras using fluorescence spectrophotometry. Building on that academic foundation, Brent earned a Master of Science in Bioinformatics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he worked on designing a filtration-based protein microarray and assisted in the design and validation of dual FRET molecular beacons for in vivo monitoring of gene expression.
Before his graduate research, Brent worked at the University of North Carolina Hospital’s Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Disease, performing isolation and sequence analysis of various viral strains, including coxsackievirus, rhinovirus, poliovirus, and influenza.
Outside the Office
Besides his commitment to his clients, Brent is a member of the board of directors of Rayo de Sol, a non-profit committed to serving children in Nicaragua through sustainable initiatives. The organization’s ongoing efforts include improving education, supporting health through better nutrition and medical exams and treatments, providing family ministries, and enhancing community development.
A devoted father and husband, Brent spends his free time enjoying his mountain home and the great outdoors with his wife, five children, and their three dogs. He likes to hike, camp, fly fish, coach soccer, and train his two German Shorthaired Pointers.
Community & Charitable Involvement
- Rayo de Sol
- Board of Directors
Practice Areas
Education
- Georgia State University School of Law, Juris Doctor, 2014
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Master of Science in Bioinformatics, 2003
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bachelor of Science in Biology, 1999
Admissions
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- Georgia
Published Work
- Santangelo PJ, Nix B, Tsourkas A, Bao G (2004) Dual FRET molecular beacons for mRNA detection in living cells. Nucleic Acids Research 32(6):e57
- Lin S, Shi Q, Nix FB, Styblo M, Beck MA, Herbin-Davis KM, Hall LL, Simeonsson JB, Thomas DJ (2002) A Novel S-adenosyl-L-methionine: arsenic(III) methyltransferase from rat liver cytosol. Journal of Biological Chemistry 273(13): 10795-10803
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