Maria C. Smith, PhD

Maria Smith is an associate focused on helping life sciences companies and investors acquire, build, and leverage strategic patent protection around their commercialized and developing products. Dr. Smith has extensive experience with prior art searches, competitive landscape reviews, freedom to operate analyses, IP diligence, US and ex-US patent prosecution, and overall patent strategies.

Dr. Smith’s representative experience includes:

• Pharmakon Advisors in its $250 million debt facility with Zenas BioPharma
• Royalty Pharma on the IP and technology aspects of a $275 million synthetic royalty funding agreement with Denali Therapeutics based on future net sales of tividenofusp alfa
• Pharmakon Advisors on the IP and technology aspects of its $500 million debt facility agreement with Valneva SE
• Pharmakon Advisors on the IP due diligence around its $125 million credit facility agreement with Precigen, Inc. (Nasdaq: PGEN)
• Royalty Pharma on the IP aspects of its obexelimab funding agreement for up to $300 million with Zenas Biopharma
• Royalty Pharma on the IP aspects of its $2 billion funding arrangement with Revolution Medicines
• Aktis Oncology on the IP aspects of its $365.4 million IPO
• Strategically developing and managing sophisticated patent portfolios for life sciences companies and investors of all sizes
• Representing clients before the PTAB in both ex parte appeals and inter partes reviews
• Performing due diligence and freedom to operate analyses
• Conducting expert prior art and patent landscape searches
• Providing technical expertise for litigation matters including IP litigation, government enforcement & compliance, and healthcare/FDA-related matters

Prior to joining Goodwin, Dr. Smith was most recently a patent agent at Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston.

Before joining Choate, Dr. Smith worked as a full-time intern at the MassGeneral Brigham Innovation Office. She was also a contract science education writer for the Journal of Visualized Experiments, and a postdoctoral fellow and scientific writer at Brandeis University, where she interned in the Brandeis Technology Licensing Office. While finishing graduate school, she also interned at PureTech Ventures (now PureTech Health) and Akili Interactive.

Dr. Smith received her PhD in Neurosciences from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. She conducted her doctoral research at the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, exploring pathogenesis of neurological diseases in postmortem human tissue development of the central nervous system using rodent model systems that she developed. The majority of her studies focused on the origin of central nervous system cells in the developing mammalian brain, particularly resident stem cell populations and astrocytes. She employed a wide variety of techniques including developing and characterizing novel transgenic animals, cell culture and transplant studies, and advanced imaging.

Dr. Smith also participated in key industrial collaborations, participated in developing standard operating procedures for a company spun out of laboratory technology, supervised and trained various medical and graduate students and research technicians, and co-authored several protocols, multi-year NIH and MS Society grants, and peer-reviewed manuscripts. While at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Smith regularly participated in conferences and received several presentation awards, meeting travel awards, and was an invited conference speaker.

She completed her undergraduate studies at Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in Neuroscience and Behavior, and received fellowships from both the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and National Science Foundation.

Dr. Smith’s recent publications include:

• Co-Author, Cryo-electron tomography reveals ciliary defects underlying human RSPH1 primary ciliary dyskinesia. Nat Commun. 2014 Dec 4; 5:5727 (2014).
• Co-Author, Structural mechanism of the dynein powerstroke. Nat. Cell. Biol. 16: 479-85 (2014).
• Author, “Mapping Astrocyte Development in the Dorsal Cortex of the Mouse Brain,” OhioLink (2013).
• Co-Author, Beta-4 tubulin identifies a primitive cell source for oligodendrocytes in the mammalian brain. J. Neurosci. 29:7649-57 (2009).
• Co-Author, Neurogenesis in chronic lesions of multiple sclerosis. Brain. 131:2366-75 (2008).
• Author, “The Effects of Early Postnatal Environment on the Development of Behavior and the Development of the GABA Pathway in Two Strains of Mice,” Mt. Holyoke Archives (2004).
• Co-Author, (2003). “Effects of a common pesticide on behavior and adrenal hormone secretion in an amphibian,” Integrative and Comparative Biology, P2.39 (2003).

Dr. Smith’s recent speaking engagements include:

• Panelist for “Women in Big Law” at Boston College Law School (2021).
• Annual Panelist for Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center CURE Program: Beyond Academia: Conversations on Health and Life Sciences (2016-present). 
• Panelist for conference for high school girls interested in STEM careers (2013-14).
• Speaker, “Specification of an astrocyte-restricted lineage at the beginning of nervous system development,” American Society for Neurochemistry, Baltimore MD (2012).
• Speaker, “BT4 cells generate a dynamic cell population in the developing mouse brain,” Gordon Research Conference in Myelin, Ventura Beach CA (2010).