Andrew Lerner, Ph.D.
Patent Lead
andrew@rockridgelaw.com
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) RADx Faculty Member
• B.S., UC Berkeley; Ph.D., UNC Chapel Hill
• Veteran U.S.M.C., Russian cryptologist
Andrew Lerner, Ph.D. is the Patent Lead at Rockridge Venture Law®, a B Corp Best For The World law firm and Real Leaders Top 150 Impact Company. Andrew is a registered patent agent and his practice areas include clearance & patentability analyses, patent prosecution, and due diligence; strategic IP portfolio development; and IP diligence for life science venture funds.
Andrew’s technical focus areas include:
- Antibodies
- Biosensors
- Biological Materials
- Cell Lines
- Delivery Systems
- Nucleic Acids / DNA / RNA
- Protein Synthesis
- Screening Assays
- Vectors
Andrew is also a faculty member of the NIH RADx Program accelerating novel point-of-care diagnostics.
Andrew has supported faculty, researchers, and staff involved in innovation and commercialization at Duke University Innovation & Entrepreneurship and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Eshelman Institute for Innovation. He has led IP activities for life science and biotechnology seed funding for early-stage technologies and ideas and has advised academic translational researchers across broad disciplines, including biomedical engineering, pharmacology & cancer biology, and medicine.
As an entrepreneur, Andrew Lerner has advised startups developing bispecific antibody therapeutics and testing entire communities for COVID-19. Andrew has served as a reviewer for proposals for the NSF SBIR Program and other seed stage funds, and he regularly advises entrepreneurs as a mentor through Veterati, a platform that connects mentors with Service Members, Veterans, and Military Spouses.
Andrew’s academic research has focused on engineering novel proteins to study fundamental mechanisms of epigenetic regulation at UNC Chapel Hill, as well as study of protein regulatory mechanisms at the University of California, Berkeley.
Andrew holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Biophysics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and earned a Graduate Certificate in Technology Commercialization and Entrepreneurship through coursework at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and an A.A. in Russian from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, Monterey, CA.
A United States Marine Corps veteran, Andrew deployed overseas and held a top-secret security clearance while serving as a signals intelligence analyst with the National Security Agency.
Email Andrew or schedule time with him through Calendly to discuss how he can benefit your technology development needs.
RVL articles by Andrew:
5 Interesting IP Cases of 2021
5 Interesting IP Cases of 2020
Patenting Biologics: Observations on Patenting Antibody Therapeutics with the Cat in the Hat
Why, When, and How Should I File a Patent Application?
Presentations & Publications
- Lerner, Andrew et al. “An optogenetic switch for the Set2 methyltransferase provides evidence for transcription-dependent and independent dynamics of H3K36 methylation.” Genome Research. 5 October 2020. Publication.
- Meriesh, Hashem, Lerner, Andrew et al. “The histone H4 basic patch regulates SAGA-mediated H2B deubiquitination and histone acetylation.” Journal of Biological Chemistry. 8 May. 2020. Publication.
- Lerner, Andrew et al. “Engineering improved photoswitches for the control of nucleocytoplasmic distribution.” ACS Synthetic Biology. 15 Nov. 2018. Publication.
- Lerner, Andrew. “Elucidating dynamics of histone post-translational modifications using optogenetics.” EpiCypher 2018: Biological and Clinical Frontiers in Epigenetics. Nassau, Bahamas. 7 Nov. 2018. Poster.
- Yumerefendi, Hayretin, Wang, Hui, Dickinson, Daniel, Lerner, Andrew et al. “Light-dependent cytoplasmic recruitment enhances the dynamic range of a nuclear import photoswitch.” ChemBioChem. 14 Feb. 2018. Publication.
- Lerner, Andrew. “Methylation and demethylation: an optogenetic tale of histone tails.” Smaller Eukaryotes Group Meeting, NC Biotechnology Center. Durham, NC. 12 Dec. 2017. Presentation.
- Yumerefendi, Hayretin, Lerner, Andrew et al. “Light-induced nuclear export reveals rapid dynamics of epigenetic modifications.” Nature Chemical Biology. 18 Apr. 2016. Publication.
