Dr Mark Wickham
- Principal
BSc(Hons) MCommrclLaw PhD FIPTA GAICD

Mark’s work focuses on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications in Australia and internationally, due diligence, freedom to operate and invalidity advice for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, health and medical device industries.

Mark majored in genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology for his BSc(Hons) at the University of Melbourne, and his PhD work at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute with Alan Cowman FRS focussed on the molecular and cellular biology of malaria.

Mark conducted four years of postdoctoral research at the Michael Smith Laboratories (named for its Nobel Prize-winning Director) at the University of British Columbia in Canada. His work focussed on the immunologic and inflammatory responses to infectious agents at the molecular and cellular level.  Upon returning to Australia as part of a CJ Martin Fellowship, Mark conducted further post-doctoral research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

As a result of his scientific research, Mark has 33 publications in peer reviewed international journals, including Cell, EMBO Journal, PNAS and Current Biology.  Mark has also published on issues in intellectual property in Nature Biotechnology and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. His research has been cited over 2700 times.

Mark is a passionate advocate for science and technology in Australia, and has sat on the advisory boards of a number of technology based start-up companies. He is a mentor at the Melbourne Accelerator Program, Australia’s leading start-up accelerator, and is a mentor at Industry Mentoring Network in Stem (IMNIS), a mentoring program connecting PhD students with industry leaders in a one year mentoring program.  He is also a guest lecturer in the commercialisation of science at the University of Melbourne.

Mark joined Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick in 2007, and became a Principal of the firm in 2015. Mark is a registered Australian and New Zealand Patent Attorney.

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