Dr. Mengke X. McCullough

Mengke focuses her practice on patent prosecution and counseling matters in the life sciences. She assists clients ranging from startups to established biotech companies, along with research and academic institutions, involved in various technologies, including cell therapies (e.g., CAR-T, TCR-T), antibody therapeutics, gene therapies, sequencing, genetic engineering systems (e.g., CRISPR/Cas), stem cells, vaccines, small molecule pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. She also has significant experience in providing due diligence, freedom-to-operate and strategic counseling to life sciences clients.

Mengke earned her JD from the University of San Diego School of Law. She served as an article editor for the San Diego Law Review, where her article on venue in patent litigation was published as a student comment. She also was a member of the Intellectual Property Law Association. During law school, Mengke served as a judicial extern for Judge Marilyn L. Huff of the US District Court for the Southern District of California.

Before embarking on her legal career, Mengke received her PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of California, San Diego. While there, she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Med-into-Grad fellowship recipient, and her research focused on using transgenic mouse models and cellular and molecular biology methods to study breast cancer. She also has been published in academic journals, including Cell. In 2009, Mengke graduated top of her class from Peking University with a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences.