Amanda Walker Smith PhD

Associate/Senior Patent Agent

678-771-7786

Biography

Amanda Smith works with start-ups, global companies, and research institutions to build and strengthen their patent portfolios. She enjoys helping inventors and business leaders guide R&D by evaluating the patent landscape within their field. Her IP experience includes patent preparation and prosecution, patentability opinions, inventorship analyses, freedom to operate analyses, reissue applications, reexamination petitions, and IP due diligence. As a former patent Examiner, she navigates the patenting process with a unique insider’s perspective.

Amanda focuses her practice in the medical device and biotechnology spaces, but she has experience with a broad range of technologies. Before entering patent law, she conducted graduate research and post-doctoral studies in regenerative medicine. There, she published peer-reviewed manuscripts, secured extramural funding, and helped physician-scientists with commercial translation of their therapies. This last experience helped kindle her interest in guiding others through the patenting process.

Education

Vanderbilt University, B.E., Biomedical Engineering, magna cum laude

Washington University, PhD, Biomedical Engineering

Emory University, Post-doctoral training

Georgia State University, J.D.

Admissions

  • Georgia
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

  • Practice Areas

  • Technologies

  • Publications & Presentations

    • Agarwal, U., Smith, A.W., French, K.M., Boopathy, A.V., George, A., Trac, D., Brown, M.E., Shen, M., Jiang, R., Fernandez, J.D., Kogon, B.E., Kanter, K.R., Alsoufi, B., Wagner, M.B., Platt, M.O., Davis, M.E. Age-Dependant Effect of Pediatric Cardiac Progenitor Cells After Juvenile Heart Failure. Stem Cells Translational Medicine. 2016; 5(7): 847-979.

    • Boopathy, A.V., Martinez, M.D., Smith, A.W., Brown, M.E., Garcia, A.J., Davis, M.E. Intramyocardial Delivery of Notch Ligand-Containing Hydrogels Improves Cardiac Function and Angiogenesis Following Infarction. Tissue Eng Part A. 2015. (In press).

    • McCreedy, D.A., Wilems, T.S., Xu, H., Butts, J.C., Brown, C.R., Smith, A.W., Sakiyama-Elbert, S.E. Survival, differentiation, and migration of high purity mouse embryonic stem cell-derived progenitor motor neurons in fibrin scaffolds after sub-acute spinal cord injury. Biomaterials Science. 2014; 2: 1672-1682.

    • Smith, A.W., Hoyne, J.D., Nguyen, P.K., McCreedy, D.A., Aly, H. Efimov, I.R., Rentschler, S., Elbert, D.L. Direct reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts to cardiomyocyte-like cells using Yamanaka factors on engineered poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels. Biomaterials. 2013; 34: 6559-6571.

    • Nguyen, P.K., Snyder, C.G., Shields, J.D., Smith, A.W., Elbert, D.L. Clickable Poly- (ethylene glycol) Microsphere Based Cell Scaffolds. Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics. 2013; 8: 948-956.

    • Smith, A.W., Segar, C.E., Nguyen, P.K., MacEwan, M.R., Efimov, I.R., Elbert, D.L. Long-term culture of HL-1 cardiomyocytes in modular poly(ethylene glycol) microsphere-based scaffolds crosslinked in the phase-separated state. Acta Biomaterialia. 2012; 8: 31-40.

    • Weiner, A.A., Moore, M.C., Walker, A.H., Shastri, V.P. Modulation of protein release from photocrosslinked networks by gelatin microparticles. Int. J. Pharmaceutics. 2008; 360: 1007-114

    • Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERMIS) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. 2013. Smith, A.W. et al. Direct reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts to cardiomyocyte-like cells using Yamanaka factors on engineered poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels.

    • Georgia Bio Life Sciences Summit in Atlanta, Georgia. 2013. Smith, A.W. et al. Direct reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts to cardiomyocyte-like cells using Yamanaka factors on engineered poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels.

    • Gordon Conference: Signal Transduction in Engineered Extracellular Matrices in Biddeford, Maine. 2012. Smith, A.W., et al. Fine-tuning porous PEG hydrogels for direct reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts to cardiovascular cells.

    • Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERMIS) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Houston, Texas. 2011. Smith, A.W. et al. Porous poly(ethylene glycol) microsphere-based scaffolds crosslinked around cells while phase separated in dextran solutions exhibit improved elastic properties and enable long term culture of HL-1 cardiomyocytes.

    • Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington. 2010. Smith, A.W., et al. Production of Highly Porous Bioactive Hydrogels by Self-Assembly of Phase Separated Poly(ethylene glycol) Microspheres in the Presence of Cells.

  • Membership & Affiliations

    • Georgia Bio
    • Women in Bio
    • Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society: Commercialization Thematic Working Group

  • Honors & Awards

    • TI:GER Entrepreneurship Fellowship, Georgia Institute of Technology School of Management
    • Predoctoral Fellowship, American Heart Association
    • National Merit Scholarship, Vanderbilt University