Flora Luo, PhD

Overview

Flora Luo focuses her practice on patent prosecution and counseling in the life sciences. She has extensive knowledge in the areas of engineered recombinant proteins, nucleic acid-based therapeutics, precision medicine, genetically modified organisms, cell engineering, and biosensors.

Flora advises a wide range of clients navigating complex patent landscapes, ranging from preclinical and clinical stage clients to platform companies and academic clients. Flora’s practice includes US and foreign patent prosecution, patentability studies, freedom-to-operate (FTO) and patent landscape analyses, and counseling relating to post-grant proceedings, including inter partes review (IPR) and post grant review (PGR) in the biotechnology space. Her research background in cell signaling, targeted therapeutics, and precision medicine enables her to work seamlessly with inventors, technical experts, and business teams to advance creative yet credible arguments before the USPTO and international patent offices.

Prior to joining Wolf Greenfield, Flora was a graduate researcher in the Laboratory of Dr. Levi Garraway at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute where she mapped the landscape of resistance to cell cycle inhibitors in ER+ breast cancer with genomic screens and identified therapeutic strategies to combat resistance to CDK4/6 inhibition. As an undergraduate, she conducted her honors thesis in the Laboratory of Dr. Marianne Wessling-Resnick at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she used chemical genetics to characterize the role of the human hemochromatosis factor in cellular iron homeostasis. 

Experience

• Developed patent strategy for engineered enzymes on behalf of a synthetic biology company.
• Advised early- and late-stage companies on navigating crowded patent landscapes.
• Drafted and prosecuted patent families directed to recombinant proteins, nucleic acid-based therapeutics, engineered cells, genetically modified organisms, and biosensors.
• Counseled clients regarding post grant proceeding strategy in the US including inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR), as well as third party observations before the EPO.
• Developed arguments that resulted in institution of an IPR and a PGR on behalf of a petitioner client.

Activities

• Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) 2024 Pathfinder

Recognition

• Named to the list of Massachusetts Rising Stars by Super Lawyers (2024-2025)
• Academic Leadership Scholarship, Suffolk University (2019- 2022)
• Trustee Academic Scholarship, Suffolk University (2018-2022)
• Distinguished Oral Advocate Award, Suffolk University (2019)
• Distinguished Brief Award, Suffolk University (2019)
• Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service F31 Award (2015-2017)