🧬 Kate Neville - Part 1 | From Youngest of Six to Patent Law Pioneer | When Chemistry Sets Spark Scientific Careers | Leading Through Autonomy | Serendipitous Path from Lab Bench to IP Law

The Biotech Startups Podcast

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Part 1 of 4: Jon Chee hosts Kate Neville, Partner at Marshall Gerstein—a law firm with over 60 years of expertise in delivering sophisticated intellectual property advice and legal services to leading businesses, research institutions, universities, and entrepreneurs worldwide.

Kate, an accomplished attorney with a doctoral background in microbiology and immunology, specializes in global patent prosecution and strategic management. With over a decade of experience, she works with biotech startups, big pharma, and non-profits. Kate has been recognized as a "World's Leading Patent Practitioner" by IAM magazine since 2013, an Illinois Super Lawyer since 2018, and is included in The Best Lawyers in America© for Patent Law.

Join us this week to hear about:

• How growing up as youngest of six influenced Kate's leadership style of giving autonomy while providing guidance
• How early exposure to science through her father's engineering and a chemistry set ignited her scientific interests
• The research at Michigan's yeast lab and Northwestern's MS research that developed key multitasking abilities
• Kate’s unexpected shift from bench science to patent law through colleagues at Marshall Gerstein
• How career paths in science evolved from strictly academic to broader acceptance of industry and alternative paths

Please enjoy Jon’s conversation with Kate Neville.

Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994

Find Our Guest, Kate Neville, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-neville-phd/

https://www.marshallip.com/

Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee

https://www.excedr.com

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Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Enriched Notes:

Topics Mentioned:

Marshall, Gerstein & Borun https://www.marshallip.com/

Northwestern University https://www.northwestern.edu/

Business Entities & Their Differences https://www.excedr.com/resources/what-are-the-differences-between-business-entities

Intellectual Property 101: Types & Uses https://www.excedr.com/resources/intellectual-property-guide

How to Protect Your Intellectual Property in the Life Sciences https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-protect-your-intellectual-property

People Mentioned:

Sharon Sintich https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-sintich-2033462a/

Stephen Miller https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/faculty-profiles/az/profile.html?xid=14949

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

03:26 Kate's background growing up as the youngest of six children

05:36 Kate's leadership style and approach to management

07:33 Early exposure to science and developing an interest in chemistry

09:27 Exploring different scientific fields in university

11:56 Considering career paths and deciding on graduate school

12:54 Undergraduate lab experiences and summer research program

15:29 Choosing Northwestern for PhD and focus on immunology

18:29 Challenges and triumphs during graduate studies

21:43 Serendipitous introduction to patent law as a career path

25:05 Changing perceptions of non-academic career paths in science

27:22 Outro

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