Sandra A. Sciascia-Zirger, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisor

Sandra A. Sciascia-Zirger, Ph.D. serves as a Scientific Advisor in the areas of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Dr. Sciascia-Zirger drafts patent applications, prosecutes U.S. patent applications (drafts responses, amendments, and appeal and reply briefs), and corresponds with foreign associates to guide the prosecution of foreign applications.

Dr. Sciascia-Zirger’s Ph.D. is in Molecular Genetics and she has significant experience in immunology, molecular biology, autoimmunity, gene therapy, infectious diseases (particularly HIV) and vaccines. Dr. Sciascia-Zirger was the Director of Research at a small biotech company developing vaccines for HIV and Hepatitis C. Her post-doctoral work was done at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California where she investigated the immune response to viral vectors used in gene therapy. Dr. Sciascia-Zirger's doctoral work related to the autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) where she aided in the development of an immunotherapy used to treat a SLE mouse model, developed a novel SLE mouse model and developed an assay for detecting a specific autoantigen in the urine of SLE patients.

Dr. Sciascia-Zirger has co-authored several manuscripts including "Autoantibodies and autoantigens in the urine of SLE patients. Autoimmunity, 2004 Sep-Nov; 37 (6-7): 503-14", "Immunization of Nonautoimmune Mice with DNA Binding Domains of the Largest Subunit of RNA Polymerase I Results in Production of Anti-dsDNA and Anti-Sm/RNP Antibodies. Autoimmunity, 2007 Feb; 40 (1): 38-47", and "Stability of lentiviral vector-mediated transgene expression in the brain in the presence of systemic anti-vector immune responses. Human Gene Therapy, 2005 June; 16(6): 741-751."