Linda K. Gont, Ph.D.

Linda Gont is a patent agent at Shay Glenn LLP where she focuses on patent application drafting, patent prosecution, and patentability analysis.

Dr. Gont has experience in biotechnology, medical devices and microbiology.

She earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California-Los Angeles in 1994, working in the laboratory of Dr. Edward De Robertis, M.D., Ph.D. Her thesis work explored aspects of early vertebrate development. She obtained a competitive March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship. She undertook postdoctoral research at UCLA where she was the recipient of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship, and in the laboratory of Dr. John Lough at the Medical College of Wisconsin, studying heart development. Prior to obtaining her Ph.D., Dr. Gont received her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985 where she graduated with distinction.

Prior to joining Shay Glenn LLP as a Scientific Advisor in 2006, Dr. Gont held various positions at both start-up and established companies. At Clontech (formerly BD-Biosciences Clontech), Dr. Gont had responsibility for quality support for products useful in molecular biology, biochemistry and cell culture. Prior to that, she was a scientist at Pro-Duct Health, Inc. (formerly Windy Hill Technology, Inc.), a medical device start-up company. She is a co-inventor on U.S. and foreign patents. See, for example, U.S. Patent 6,589,998. Prior to obtaining her Ph.D., Dr. Gont was a research associate at Incell Corporation, focusing on production and purification of various molecules.

Selected Publications and Patent

• Gont, L., and Neuendorf, S., Separation of the enantiomers of N-carbamyl tryptophan on a chiral stationary phase. J of Chromatography (1987) 391: 343-345.
• Gont, L., Steinbeisser, H.,Blumberg, B.,and De Robertis, E. M., Tail formation as a continuation of gastrulation: the multiple cell populations of the Xenopus tailbud derive from the late blastopore lip. Development (1993) 119:991-1004.
• Sasai, Y., Lu, B., Steinbeisser, H., Geissert, D., Gont, L., and De Robertis, E. M., Xenopus Chordin: A novel dorsalizing factor activated by organizer-specific homeobox genes. Cell (1994) 79:779-790.
• Gont, L., Fainsod, A., Kim, S-Y., and De Robertis, E.M. Overexpression of the homeobox gene Xnot-2 leads to notochord formation in Xenopus. Developmental Biology (1996) 174:174-178.
• Bianchi, A., Nikolchev, J., Hung, D., Ron, E., Gont, L., Love, S., and Patel, T., U.S. Patent 6,589,998. “Gel composition for filling a breast milk duct prior to surgical excision of the duct or other breast tissue”.

Education

• University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D. Molecular Biology
• University of Wisconsin, Madison, B.S. Molecular Biology with distinction

Admitted to Practice

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office