Siying Chen, Ph.D.

U.S. Patent Prosecutor

Dr. Chen is a registered practitioner in front of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Dr. Chen has extensive expertise in a diversity of technical areas, including biotechnology, life sciences, chemical engineering, semiconductor processing, and mechanical devices. Dr. Chen's has also been participating as a Technical Editor for Phoenix Translation, focusing on technical edition on translation of foreign patents/foreign patent applications in various fields.

Prior to joining the WPAT in the patent prosecuting operation, Dr. Chen had an extensive professional experience in pharmaceutical field. Dr. Chen was a member scientist of Synergy America Inc., a startup pharmaceutical company, focusing on research and development of a potential Pneumonia Vaccine.

Dr. Chen was a graduate research associate in the Molecular Biology & Biochemistry Dept. /Molecular Biophysics Program, Wesleyan University. Dr. Chen was also a team leader of an National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grant supported project; Dr. Chen conducted research on the enzyme kinetics of multiple DNA replication/repair-related motor protein complexes and contributed to our knowledge of the inner workings of the DNA replication machinery.

Dr. Chen conducted her Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Genetic and Biochemistry Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), NIH; as a team leader of an NIH intramural funding supported project, Dr. Chen conducted research on the role of human DNA Mismatch Repair (MMR) proteins in cancer susceptibility and produced fruitful results.

Dr. Chen's achievements as a life scientist are related to her studies of the functional mechanisms of numerous DNA replication/DNA mismatch repair protein motor complexes from the Human, Yeast and Bacterial systems. She was the first researcher in 15 years to succeed in purification of a stable and active full-length "DNA Replication Factor C" motor protein complex, which vastly facilitated the research of her peers.

Dr. Chen has also been active contributing in the academic community as a Teaching Assistant for Wesleyan University and an Internship Supervisor for the Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. Dr. Chen is currently a culture exchange teacher as a Mandarin instructor as of 2013 for the Louise Archer Elementary School language program.

• Registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office

• Ph.D. Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut
• Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, Sun Yat-Sen University, China

• Chen S, Coman MM, Sakato M, O'Donnell M, Hingorani MM, Conserved residues in the {delta} subunit help the E. coli clamp loader, {gamma} complex, target primer-template DNA for clamp assembly. Nucleic Acids Research 2008 Jun; 36(10): 3274-86
• Chen S, Levin MK, Sakato M, Zhou Y, Hingorani MM, Mechanism of ATP-Driven PCNA Clamp Loading by S. cerevisiae RFC. Journal of Molecular Biology 2009 May; 388(3): 431-42
• Chen S*, Geng H*, Du C*, Salerno V, Hsieh P, In vitro studies of DNA mismatch repair proteins. Analytical Biochemistry 2011 Jun 15;413(2):179-84.
• Antony E, Khubchandani S, Chen S, and Hingorani MM, Contribution of Msh2 and Msh6 subunits to the asymmetric ATPase and DNA mismatch binding activities of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Msh2-Msh6 mismatch repair protein. DNA Repair 2006 5(2):153-62
• Diouf B, Cheng Q, Krynetskaia NF, Yang W, Cheok M, Pei D, Fan Y, Cheng C, Krynetskiy EY, Geng H, Chen S, Thierfelder WE, Mullighan CG, Downing JR, Hsieh P, Pui CH, Relling MV, Evans WE, Somatic deletions of genes regulating MSH2 protein stability cause DNA mismatch repair deficiency and drug resistance in human leukemia cells. Nature Medcine 2011 Sep 25;17(10):1298-303
• Geng H, Sakato M, Derocco V, Yamane K, Du C, Erie DA, Hingorani M, Hsieh P, Biochemical Analysis of the Human Mismatch Repair Proteins hMutSα MSH2G674A-MSH6 and MSH2-MSH6T1219D Journal of Biological Chemistry 2012 Mar 23;287(13):9777-91. Acknowledgements-Siying Chen for early contributions.
• Zito CR, Antony E, Hunt JF, Oliver DB, Hingorani MM, Role of a conserved glutamate residue in the Escherichia coli SecA ATPase mechanism. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2005 Apr 15;280(15):14611-9 . Acknowledgements- Siying Chen for preparation of SecA mutants.

• Young Scientist Speaker Program, The 15th conversation of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, Albany, NY, 8/2007
• Seminar series of the Genetics and Biochemistry Branch, NIDDK, NIH, 6/2007
• Eighth Molecular Biophysics Retreat, Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, CT, 9/2006

• Barry Kiefer Prize & Peterson Fellowships 2008 Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
• Best Poster Award 2006 3rd Annual North Eastern Structure Symposium - Macromolecular Assemblies, Storrs, CT

• English
• Chinese Mandarin
• Chinese Cantonese