Haley S. Ball, Ph.D.

Haley S. Ball, Ph.D. is an associate in Sterne Kessler’s Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group. Haley’s technical areas of expertise include biochemistry, metabolomics, molecular biology, enzymology, protein crystallography, and small molecule drug design.

During her Ph.D. and postdoctoral work at George Mason University and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Haley developed antibiotics for the treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant nosocomial pathogens, biothreat agents, and global health threats: malaria and tuberculosis. Her work was funded by a fellowship from the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

For her research, Haley evaluated the MEP pathway enzyme, IspC, which is essential to bacteria and protozoans. She conducted enzyme essays, protein crystallography experiments, and antimicrobial assays to elucidate structure-activity relationships of IspC inhibitors. She also wrote proposals for the U.S. Department of Defense to further research efforts to mitigate complicated military wound healing. At the Mason Metabolomics Facility, Haley developed a liquid extraction and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry method for quantifying MEP pathway metabolites to demonstrate the effect of select IspC inhibitors on targeted metabolite levels in bacterial cell cultures.

Prior to her Ph.D., Haley studied the in vitro splicing mechanism of mutant and wild type group I introns in the presence of fungal enzyme, CYT-18, to probe RNA-protein interactions for antifungal drug discovery at the University of Maryland, College Park. She also developed and implemented bioreactor cleaning validation studies and evaluated assays for quality control suitability at AstraZeneca. Additionally, Haley studied translational regulation during B-cell development and lymphomagenesis for the development of lymphoma therapeutics at University of Maryland School of Medicine.

During law school, Haley was a student attorney in the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic where she conducted patentability searches and drafted patent applications. Additionally, she worked at the intersection of immigration and patent law. Specifically, Haley evaluated an individual’s patent portfolio to demonstrate positive equities as evidence for immigration removal proceedings. Haley was the Editor-in-Chief of the American University Intellectual Property Brief, a Legal Rhetoric Dean’s Fellow, and a member of the American University Law Review.

Legal Publications:

• Ball, H., et al. (2021), Reviewing Patent Eligibility in Biotechnology: Recent Developments in Patenting Diagnostic Methods. Westlaw Today.
• Jackman, P.A. and Ball, H. (2023), Options for Accelerating Examination of Renewable Technology Patent Applications, Pratt’s Energy Law Report.

Technical Publications:

• Ball, H., et al. (2021), Characterization and Inhibition of 1-Deoxy-d-Xylulose 5-Phosphate Reductoisomerase: A Promising Drug Target in Acinetobacter baumanniiand Klebsiella pneumoniae, ACS Infectious Diseases.
• Ball, H., et al. (2020), Inhibition of the Yersinia pestis Methylerythritol Phosphate Pathway of Isoprenoid Biosynthesis by α-Phenyl Substituted Reverse Fosmidomycin Analogs, ACS Omega.
• Girma, M., Ball, H., et al. (2021), Mechanism of Action of N-Acyl and N-Alkoxy Fosmidomycin Analogs: Mono- and Bisubstrate Inhibition of IspC from Plasmodium falciparum, a Causative Agent of Malaria, ACS Omega.
• Wang, X., Edwards, R.L., Ball, H., et al. (2023), MEPicides: α,β-unsaturated Fosmidomycin N-Acyl Analogs as Efficient Inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum 1-Deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase, ACS Infectious Diseases.
• Wang, X., Edwards, R.L., Ball, H., et al. (2018) MEPicides: α, β-Unsaturated Fosmidomycin Analogues as DXR Inhibitors against Malaria, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
• Haymond, A., Dowdy, T., Johny, C., Johnson, C., Ball, H., et al. (2018) A high-throughput screening campaign to identify inhibitors of DXP reductoisomerase (IspC) and MEP cytidylyltransferase (IspD), Analytical Biochemistry.