Amanda Schnepp, Ph.D., J.D. joined Parker Highlander after completing a Ph.D. program in Molecular Biology at Vanderbilt University, a post-doctoral fellowship in Molecular Virology at Vanderbilt University, and a post-doctoral fellowship in drug development at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Prior to her graduate studies, Amanda earned a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Austin, and a degree from the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science based at the University of North Texas. Her research experience at St. Jude focused on high-throughput screening of spliceosome inhibitors for cancer therapy and anti-influenza drugs, both in close collaboration with medicinal organic chemists. During her post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt, Amanda developed an innovative confocal microscopy-based assay to quantitatively analyze the binding of broadly neutralizing antibodies to HIV-1 virions. This research had profound implications for the relationship between maturation of the viral core and the exposure of broadly neutralizing regions of the HIV-1 surface glycoprotein during the HIV-1 life cycle. During her dissertation research at Vanderbilt, where she was awarded the prestigious University Graduate Fellowship, Amanda quantitatively analyzed mRNA splice variant production and identified the biochemical mechanism of an Isolated Growth Hormone Deficiency Type-2 causing mutation.

Upon joining Parker Highlander, Amanda has focused on end-to-end biotechnology patent prosecution both nationally and internationally, freedom-to-operate analyses, and patentability analyses, focusing primarily in the areas of molecular biology, next generation sequencing, cancer therapeutics, biologics, stem cell biology, diagnostic analysis, and second medical use pharmaceuticals. Amanda also has experience managing national and international IP portfolios and works with pharmaceutical companies, start-up companies, and universities.