Christopher M. Gallo, Ph.D.

Christopher Gallo, Ph.D. is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group, focusing his practice on patent counseling and post-grant proceedings in the life sciences, biotechnology, and biopharmaceutical spaces, including technologies such as cell and gene therapies, biologics, small molecule drugs, antibodies, molecular diagnostics, synthetic biology, and clean technologies.

Christopher’s experience includes advising clients spanning from early-stage start-ups to large corporations on intellectual property issues arising during product research and development, product clearance, patent portfolio acquisitions, and patent enforcement proceedings. This work has involved developing invalidity, noninfringement, design-around, and enforcement strategies, as well as developing litigation positions and challenges to or defenses for patents in post-grant proceedings in the United States and Europe. Christopher also has significant experience handling patent litigation before federal courts (including litigations brought under the Hatch-Waxman Act) and the United States International Trade Commission. He has additionally represented pharmaceutical companies in responding to Citizen Petitions filed with the United States Food & Drug Administration and in challenging the Food & Drug Administration’s decisions in federal court.

Prior to joining the firm, Christopher gained extensive technical experience working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he investigated the role of RNA-protein complexes in regulating fertility and cell fate specification. His research involved cell and molecular biology techniques, as well as the biochemical isolation and purification of RNA-protein complexes. Christopher’s doctoral research focused on the role of nicotinamide in regulating gene silencing and lifespan in yeast.