Michael "Mick" F. Gross, Ph.D.

Michael “Mick” Gross, Ph.D., is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group. His practice includes preparing and prosecuting U.S. and foreign patent applications, conducting, patentability, validity, infringement, and freedom-to-operate analyses, assisting in the preparation of license agreements, and strategic counseling on patenting strategies. His areas of technical experience include organic, organometallic, and medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, and ion channel pharmacology.

Prior to joining Sterne Kessler, Mick was employed by a biopharmaceutical company as a senior research investigator. He focused on small molecule drug discovery in cardiovascular and pain therapeutic areas and brings ten years of industrial medicinal chemistry research and development experience to his practice. Mick contributed to several programs that advanced new chemical entities into human clinical trials.

Mick conducted postdoctoral research studies at Duke University and Los Alamos National Laboratories. At Duke, he studied asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation reactions to devise a practical synthesis of beta-branched alpha-amino acids. At Los Alamos, he demonstrated asymmetric reductions could be achieved in supercritical fluids. Mick pursued graduate studies at the University of Virginia where he investigated the synthetic utility of heterobimetallic Fischer carbene complexes. Mick earned his J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law and his B.A. in chemistry from Franklin & Marshall College.

Additionally, Mick is a named inventor on twenty-seven U.S. patents.

Technical Publications

• “A-803467, a potent and selective Nav1.8 sodium channel blocker, attenuates neuropathic and inflammatory pain in the rat” Gross, M.F. et al., PNAS 2007.
• “Aryl Sulfonamido Indane Inhibitors of the Kv1.5 Ion Channel” Gross, M. F.; Beaudoin, S.; McNaughton-Smith, G.; Amato, G. S.; Castle, N. A.; Huang, C.; Zou, A.; Yu, W. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2007.
• “Asymmetric Catalytic Routes to Chiral Building Blocks of Medicinal Interest” Burk, M. J.; Gross, M. F.; Harper, T. G. P.; Kalberg, C. S.; Lee, J. R.; Martinez, J. P. Pure Appl. Chem. 1996, 68, 37-44.
• “Asymmetric Catalytic Synthesis of .beta-Branched Amino Acids via Highly Enantioselective Hydrogenation Reactions” Burk, M. J.; Gross, M. F.; Martinez, J. P. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1995, 117, 9375-9376.
• “Asymmetric Catalytic Hydrogenation Reactions in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide” Burk, M. J.; Feng, S. G.; Gross, M. F.; Tumas, W. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1995, 117, 8277-8278.