Melissa Haulcomb, Ph.D. is an intellectual property lawyer in the Chicago office focusing on patent litigation and client counseling.
Melissa is experienced in many phases of patent litigation, including pre-suit investigation, pleadings, fact and expert discovery, Markman hearings, depositions, discovery and dispositive motion practice, trial and witness preparation, as well as pre-trial hearings. Melissa has experience with complex patent licensing agreements, litigation arising under the Hatch-Waxman Act, trademark and copyright litigation, breach of contract claims, arbitration proceedings, proceedings before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), drafting patent applications, patent prosecution, preparing requests for supplemental examination of patents, and due diligence matters.
Additionally, Melissa has participated in pro bono cases including assisting an individual seeking asylum under Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture (CAT) in Immigration Court, investigating claims of tortured confession for review by the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (TIRC), and various matters for Chicago Volunteer Legal Services.
Melissa has technical experience in the life sciences, including neuroscience, molecular biology, and preclinical phases of drug development such as screening assays, target validation, H2L and lead optimization processes, study design, in vitro ADME and cell culture testing, in vivo pharmacology, formulation analysis, and in vivo efficacy testing. Melissa also has technical experience in clinical chemistry diagnostics, test method development and validation, physical and wet chemistry testing of APIs, immunology, neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorders, learning and memory processes, as well as environmentally-induced or pathologically-induced mRNA and protein expression changes.
Prior to attending law school, Melissa worked as an Analytical Chemist at a major pharmaceutical company, a Clinical Scientific Researcher for a clinical chemistry laboratory, completed two post-doctoral fellowships at Indiana University, and worked as a Scientific Project Leader for a biotech startup company developing therapeutics for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Making Medicines: The Process of Drug Development Course Certificate, Eli Lilly and Company, 2017
- Molecular Biology Technologist Certification, American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2013
- Chicago Bar Association, Member
- Chicago Volunteer Legal Services
- Arabian Horse Association, Member
- Panelist at University of California, Davis’ 2021 Virtual Career Panel and Networking Event hosted by the FUTURE Career Skills and Exploration Program.
- Panelist at Loyola University Chicago’s 2021 Virtual Career Panel hosted by the Graduate Student Council and Women in Science student organizations.
- Panelist at the 2019 Midwest Taiwanese Biotechnology Symposium, Chicago, IL.
- Platform Session Speaker at the 2010 Experimental Biology Conference, Anaheim, CA.
- “Methods For Using Natural Compounds Can Be Patent-Eligible,” Law360, 6 May 2019
- Li, L.P., Dustrude, E.T., Haulcomb, M.M., Abreu, A.R., Fitz S.D., Johnson P.L., Thakur G.A., Molosh, A.I., Lai, Y., Shekhar, A. PSD95 and nNOS Interaction as a novel molecular target to modulate conditioned fear: relevance to PTSD. Translational Psychiatry. 2018 Aug. 14; 8(1): 155. PMID: 30108200.
- Stetter, D.O., Haulcomb, M.M., Beahrs, T., Meadows, R.M., Schartz, N.D., Custer, S.K., Sanders, V.M., Jones, K.J. Identification of a resilient mouse facial motoneuron population following target disconnection by injury or disease. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. 2018; 36(3):417-422. PMID: 29614705.
- Haulcomb, M.M., Meadows, R.M., Miller, W.M., McMillan, K.P., Hilsmeyer, M.J., Wang, X., Beaulieu, W.T., Dickinson, S.L., Brown, T.J., Sanders, V.M., Jones, K.J. Locomotor analysis identifies early compensatory changes during disease progression and subgroup classification in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neural Regeneration Research. 2017 Oct.; 12(10):1664-1679. PMID: 29171432.
- Stetter, D.O., Runge, E.M., Schartz, N.D., Kennedy, F.M., Brown, B.L., McMillan, K.P., Miller, W.M., Shah, K.M., Haulcomb, M.M., Sanders, V.M., Jones, K.J. Impact of peripheral immune status on central molecular responses to facial nerve axotomy. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2018 Feb.; 68:98-110. PMID: 29030217.
- Hickman, D.L, Fitz, S.D., Bernabe, C.S., Caliman, I.F., Haulcomb, M.M., Federici, L.M., Shekhar, A., Johnson, P.L. Evaluation of low versus high volume per minute displacement CO2 methods of euthanasia in the induction and duration of panic-associated behavior and physiology. Animals. 2016 Aug. 2; 6(8). pii. E45. PMID: 27490573.
- Haulcomb, M.M., Mesnard-Hoaglin, N.A., Batka, R.J., Meadows, R.M., Miller, W.M., McMillan, K.P., Brown, T.J., Sanders, V.M., Jones, K.J. Identification of B6SJL mSOD1G93A mouse subgroups with different disease progression rates. Journal of Comparative Neurology. 2015 Dec 15; 523(18):2752-68. PMID: 26010802.
- Olmstead, D.N., Mesnard-Hoaglin, N.A., Batka, R.J., Haulcomb, M.M., Miller, W.M., Jones, K.J. Facial nerve axotomy in mice: a model to study motoneuron response to injury. Journal of Visualized Experiments. 2015 Feb. 23; (96):e52382. PMID: 25742324.
- Batka, R.J., Brown, T.J., McMillan, K.P., Meadows, R.M., Jones, K.J. Haulcomb, M.M. The need for speed in rodent locomotion analyses. Anatomical Record. 2014 Oct.; 297(10):1839-64. PMID: 24890945.
- Mesnard-Hoaglin, N.A., Xin, J., Haulcomb, M.M., Batka, R.J., Sanders, V.M., Jones, K.J. SOD1G93A transgenic mouse CD4+ T cells mediate neuroprotection after facial nerve axotomy when removed from a suppressive peripheral microenvironment. Brain, behavior, and immunity. 2014 Aug.; 40:55-60. PMID: 24911596.
- Haulcomb, M.M., Mesnard, N.A., Batka, R.J., Alexander T.D., Sanders, V.M., Jones, K.J. Axotomy-induced target disconnection promotes an additional death mechanism involved in motoneuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis transgenic mice. Journal of Comparative Neurology. 2014 Jul. 1; 522(10):2349-76. PMID: 24424947.
- Mesnard, N.A., Haulcomb, M.M., Tanzer, L., Sanders, V.M., Jones, K.J. Delayed functional recovery in presymptomatic mSOD1G93A mice following facial nerve crush axotomy. Journal of Neurodegeneration and Regeneration. 2013 Fall; 4(1):21-25. PMID: 24672589.
- Xin, J., Mesnard, N.A., Wainwright, D.A., Haulcomb, M.M., Beahrs, T.R., Sanders, V.M., Jones, K.J. Immune-mediated neuroprotection: relevance to motoneuron trauma and disease. Proceedings (P212) of the XXII Int. Symp. on Morphological Sciences (ISMS, 2012, Sao Paulo, Brazil). Medimond - Monduzzi Editore.
