Natalie Punnilathil, PhD, CLP

Strategic advisor providing fractional leadership to academic institutions, university startups, and biotech companies. I leverage cross-sector experience to bridge scientific innovation with commercial strategy, supporting clients in corporate development, IP management, and deal execution. Licensing, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships: + Deal Strategy & Execution: Develop licensing and negotiation strategies for high-stakes transactions, supporting clients from term sheet development through execution of complex licenses, sponsored research, and strategic collaborations. + Technology Assessment & Market Strategy: Conduct landscape analyses and commercial potential evaluations to inform commercialization pathways and go-to-market strategies for early-stage university and biotech assets. + New Venture Creation: Support university spin-outs and startups by evaluating business plans, augmenting pitch decks, and facilitating company formation to accelerate growth. + Scouting & Industry Engagement: Identify strategic partners for academic technologies and scout emerging innovations to in-license into biotech pipelines; engage Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) for research collaborations. Patent Prosecution, IP Strategy & Portfolio Management: + Patent Strategy: Direct patent prosecution strategies and manage outside counsel to align IP portfolios with commercial milestones and strategic licensing opportunities. + Due Diligence & Landscape Analysis: Perform rigorous IP due diligence and patentability assessments for licensing opportunities; conduct competitive landscape mapping and preliminary FTO risk assessments to inform strategic decision-making. + Operational Excellence: Design and implement operational infrastructure, budgets, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to streamline technology transfer and IP management operations.

Serving on the board of Licensing Executives Society Silicon Valley Chapter, bringing together professionals at the intersection of science, law, and business across the life sciences, biotech, and pharma sectors. Key Contributions: + Facilitating connections between patent attorneys, licensing managers, technology transfer professionals, strategic partnerships managers, biopharma executives, venture capital firms, academic institutions, and industry partners to advance drug discovery, therapeutic development, and commercialization initiatives + Co-chairing LES-SVC's 22nd Annual Conference "Innovation in the Age of Acceleration: Strategy, Policy, and Capital" convening leaders and dealmakers across AI, semiconductors, life sciences, and emerging technologies to explore critical trends in IP licensing, funding strategies, policy landscapes, and deal-making practices + Moderated expert panel "Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Life Sciences Licensing: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities" bringing together life sciences innovators, investors, business development professionals, and IP experts to explore licensing deal strategies, global economic impacts on negotiations, breakthrough technologies, and emerging therapeutic areas driving industry partnerships Professional Focus Areas: Drawing on my background in intellectual property management, patent portfolio strategy, technology licensing, and strategic alliances to support the LES community. My expertise spans patent prosecution, licensing negotiations, deal structuring, alliance management, and commercialization strategy across oncology, immunology, cancer immunotherapy, infectious diseases, and AI/ML applications in drug discovery and healthcare.

Oversaw the full lifecycle of IP strategy, licensing, and technology transfer for a high-value network of 500+ assets across elite partner institutions (e.g., Stanford, Penn, Dana Farber). Acted as a technical liaison between researchers, legal, and business teams to protect and license IP, accelerating the path of oncology innovations from lab to market. Licensing, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships: + Applied advanced technology transfer concepts to oversee term sheet development, negotiation and execution of complex license agreements, securing $5M in upfront fees, and substantial milestones, royalties and equity for partner institutions. + Spearheaded a critical initiative to resolve revenue backlogs for a portfolio of complex collaborative agreements ($200M+); interpreted intricate revenue-sharing clauses and established new workflows to unlock $5M+ in research funding. + Enacted SOPs to ensure compliance with complex cross-licensing obligations and retained research rights to facilitate broad access. + Spearheaded a network-wide partnering campaign, streamlining the portfolio to identify the most promising opportunities and executing targeted marketing. + Established and led a cross-functional executive Licensing and Commercialization committee to streamline decision-making and resource allocation. Patent Prosecution, IP Strategy & Portfolio Management: + Directed patent prosecution strategy with outside counsel, exercising decision-making authority on global filings, claim scope, and maintenance. + Chaired the executive-level Invention Review Committee, synthesizing technical findings to guide decisions on PCT conversions and National Stage filings. + Optimized the portfolio through strategic review of pending applications, reducing expenses by 30% and focusing resources on commercially viable innovations. + Managed intake and evaluation of 70+ annual invention disclosures, assessing patentability and aligning claim scope with commercial goals.

Managed the IP strategy, patenting, and licensing activities for a diverse life sciences portfolio, including therapeutics, gene-editing tools (CRISPR), antibodies, and cell therapies. Led UCSF's critical strategic alliances ($100M+ research funds), ensuring the effective transfer of complex research materials and IP rights. Licensing, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships: + Applied advanced licensing concepts to negotiate and execute diverse agreements (licenses, options, MTAs) generating $6M+ in upfront fees, including a deal with a record-setting issue fee for a therapeutic technology. + Evaluated commercial potential and conducted market research to formulate licensing strategies for early-stage technologies, advising faculty inventors on commercialization pathways. + Advised on intellectual property clauses in highly complex sponsored research and collaborative agreements, ensuring alignment with institutional policies and resolving third-party IP conflicts to restore stalled drug discovery efforts and ensure the program met its research and commercialization goals. + Managed high-stakes relationships with executive-level partners (e.g., GSK-LGR, Chan Zuckerberg BioHub), ensuring university compliance with complex technology transfer agreements. Patent Prosecution, IP Strategy & Portfolio Management: + Managed intake of invention disclosures and determined patentability by evaluating prior art and competitive landscapes for a high-volume portfolio. + Directed outside counsel on the preparation and prosecution of biomedical patent applications, bridging communication between inventors and attorneys to refine claiming strategies. + Served on the Joint Patent Committee (JPC) and Technology Transfer Committee (TTC) for multi-institutional alliances, leading global filing strategies and managing joint IP rights. + Conducted rigorous due diligence and clearance for intellectual property slated for joint research projects to mitigate infringement risks.

Managed a diverse biomedical technology portfolio, responsible for safeguarding government IP through strategic assessment and executing technology transfer agreements to advance public health innovation. Acted as a liaison between government scientists and the private sector to ensure the broad commercialization of infectious disease and cancer therapeutics in accordance with federal policy. Licensing, Business Development, and Strategic Partnerships: + Negotiated and executed IP-related agreements (licenses, gifts, CRADAs, CTAs, MTAs) to facilitate technology development partnerships between NIH scientists and the private sector, ensuring strict compliance with federal laws and technology transfer policies. + Conducted market research to identify commercial partners for previously unlicensed research tools, therapeutics, and vaccines, successfully increasing the volume of licensing agreements and revenue. + Created compelling pitch decks for partnering conferences and established cohesive branding strategy to amplify licensing opportunities and drive partner engagement. + Developed and implemented innovative outreach strategies to market new technologies to potential industry partners and venture capital firms, including social media strategies and targeted outreach; these were adopted office-wide to increase visibility of invention portfolios and real-world impact. Patent Strategy, Portfolio Management & Technology Evaluation: + Managed the patent prosecution lifecycle for a broad life sciences portfolio (infectious diseases, vaccines, cancer therapeutics), determining patentability and managing the intake of invention disclosures. + Evaluated invention disclosures through state-of-the-art searches and prior art analysis, providing formal recommendations on global patent filing decisions to senior government leadership. + Advised on IP clauses in complex agreements, analyzing scientific, legal, and business implications to protect government rights.

Conducted postdoctoral research in virology and infectious disease, investigating HIV pathogenesis and antiviral therapeutic development. Participated in multi-institutional industry-academic collaboration with pharma partners to evaluate long-acting drug delivery systems for prophylactic therapeutics. Developed novel techniques for isolating and characterizing HIV-infected primary cells for transcriptomic analysis using fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, and molecular biology approaches. Key Achievements: + Awarded competitive NIH T32 training grant + Gained hands-on experience in translational research bridging basic virology with therapeutic development and industry partnerships + Regularly presented research findings at national scientific conferences

+ Assessed patentability, marketability, and commercialization potential of faculty and staff inventions + Conducted prior art searches to support patent filing and marketing decisions + Executed marketing outreach campaigns for technologies available for licensing

Conducted market research and competitive product analysis to inform business development and product development decisions for clients while completing postdoctoral research.

Conducted doctoral research in the Cellular and Molecular Pathology graduate program, which provided broad exposure to molecular mechanisms underlying diverse human diseases including oncology, infectious diseases, neurological disorders, immunology, and asthma. My dissertation research focused on hepadnaviral envelope and capsid protein interactions in virion morphogenesis, identifying critical amino acid residues responsible for selective packaging and virion production, work that contributed to fundamental understanding of viral assembly mechanisms with implications for antiviral therapeutic development. Key Achievements: + Awarded multiple competitive travel awards and NIH T32 training grants + Developed comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms across therapeutic areas through interdisciplinary graduate program and collaborative research environment + Built strong foundation in molecular biology, biochemistry, virology, and experimental design that informs current IP evaluation, patentability assessments, and patent prosecution work

Selected Presentations: + International Meeting on Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses, Oxford, England (2012) + International Meeting on Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses, Taipei, Taiwan (2010) + American Society of Virology Annual Meeting, Madison, WI (2012)

Minor: Chemistry