Armando L. Corona, Ph.D.

Armando Corona, Ph.D., is a technical specialist in Sterne Kessler’s Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group, where he assists in patentability, validity, infringement and freedom-to-operate analyses. Armando’s scientific expertise include molecular biology methods such as cell culture, genetically engineered mouse modeling, cellular cloning, proteomics, next generation sequencing, testing cancer cell metastasis potential and cellular signaling.

Prior to joining Sterne Kessler, Armando worked for Duke University’s Office of Licensing and Ventures (OLV) as a Senior Technology Transfer Fellow, where he met with inventors to discuss the detailed nature of invention and identify potential disclosures that could challenge patentability, he would then analyze the invention in detail by performing prior art analysis and assess the marketability of the invention in a report that would help the OLV office decide whether to patent the technology or not.

Armando received his Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology from Duke University. Here, he focused his thesis work in identifying regulators of the TGF-β signaling pathway in metastatic breast cancer cells. Through proteomics screening, Armando and colleagues identified the extracellular protein βIGH3 to be promoting TGF-β signaling in breast cancer cells and through this signaling activation, βIGH3 is responsible for increasing breast cancer metastasis and tumor growth. Mechanistically, Armando identified that βIGH3 can activate the TGF-β1 ligand that is responsible to activate carcinogenic signaling in breast cancer.

Before starting his graduate work, Armando received his B.S. in Chemistry from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where he was part of various research projects in the chemistry department finding more effective methods to produce biodiesel from used cooking oil. After completing his B.S. Degree, Armando spent one year at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill testing anti-Notch signaling antibodies to target aggressive kidney cancer.