Nicole Zeinstra, Ph.D.

Nicole Zeinstra, Ph.D.

Juris Doctor (JD) Candidate

UC Berkeley Law School

Biography

I am a third year Juris Doctor (JD) candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Law, where I am a Berkeley Center for Law & Technology Scholar and was previously an Articles Editor for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ). I also work as a Patent Agent at Wilson Sonsini. My interests are in patent law and technology commercialization for biotechnology and life sciences.

I earned my PhD at the University of Washington Department of Bioengineering, where I was a NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellow and NCAA Postgraduate Scholar. My doctoral studies were co-advised by Prof. Charles Murry and Prof. Ying Zheng and explored engineering thick human cardiac tissue constructs with patterned, perfusable vasculature for treatment of myocardial infarction.

During my doctoral studies, I worked as a venture analyst at Washington Research Foundation & WRF Capital, an ITHS/WRF technology commercialization fellow, and as a patent intern with UW CoMotion. I also completed a Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate through the UW Foster School of Business.

Prior to my PhD, I studied chemical-biological engineering and biology at MIT where I researched at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Daniel I.C. Wang Group. I also interned at the Abbvie Bioresearch Center.

For more information, please see my resume and CV. Or reach out to me!

Interests

  • Patent Law
  • Technology Commercialization
  • Biotechnology

Education

  • PhD in Bioengineering, 2022

    University of Washington

  • BS in Chemical-Biological Engineering, 2016

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • BS in Biology, 2016

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

News

Sep 2024: Accepted Offer to Join Wilson Sonsini as an Associate

Upon completion of law school and passing the Bar Exam, I plan to join Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as a full-time associate in the Boulder office. WSGR profile

Apr 2024: 2nd Place at USPTO National Patent Application Drafting Competition!

Three other Berkeley Law students and I placed second at the US Patent and Trademark Office’s National Patent Drafting Competition, having previously won the Silicon Valley region to qualify for the national competition. more info

Apr 2024: Paper accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging

My co-first authored paper on Quantifying Microvascular Structure in Healthy and Infarcted Rat Hearts Using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography was accepted for publication to the IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging journal. more info