Weigang Lu

Weigang (Robert) Lu is a patent agent with Foley & Lardner LLP. He is based in the firm’s Boston office and is a member of the Chemical, Biotech & Pharmaceutical Practice.

With extensive researching experiences in organic chemistry, pharmaceutical science and additional focuses in microbiome and immunology, Robert focuses his practice on drafting and prosecuting domestic and international patents in the chemical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Prior to joining Foley, Robert held education and training positions at several leading universities. In his role as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Immunology, Harvard Medical School, he investigated microbiome-related molecules to improve cancer immunotherapy and participated in the “Healthcare Innovation & Commercialization” workshop, which addresses various aspects of the commercialization process including intellectual property, market sizing and FDA regulation. As a graduate research assistant at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Robert contributed to a host of projects in carbohydrate chemistry and glycoscience. He was also a visiting graduate student at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied enzyme-mediated synthesis of heparin-based therapeutics.

Publications

• Co-author, “The 3-O-sulfation of heparan sulfate modulates protein binding and lyase degradation,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 2021, 118, e2012935118
• Co-author, “Fully Synthetic Heparan Sulfate-Based Neural Tissue Construct That Maintains the Undifferentiated State of Neural Stem Cells,” ACS Chemical Biology, 2019, 14, 1921-1929
• Lead author, “Controlled Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Heparan Sulfate Oligosaccharides,” Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2018, 57, 5340-5344
• Co-author, “Negative Electron Transfer of Dissociation Sequencing of 3-O-Sulfation Containing Heparan Sulfate Oligosaccharides,” Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 2018, 29, 1262-1272
• Co-author, “Heparan Sulfate Microarray Reveals Heparan Sulfate-Protein Binding Exhibits Different Ligand Requirements,” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2017, 139, 9534-9543
• Co-author, “Integrated Approach to Identify Heparan Sulfate Ligand Requirements of Robo1,” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2016, 138, 13059-13067
• Lead author, “General Aspects in O-Glycosidic Bond Formation in Glycochemical Synthesis: Strategies and Applications,” Wiley-Blackwell; Editor: Shang-cheng Hung, 2016, 69-95

Education

• University of Georgia (Ph.D., 2018)
  • Organic Chemistry
• Peking University, School of Pharmaceutical Science, Beijing, China (M.S., 2013)
  • Chemical Biology
• Peking University, School of Pharmaceutical Science, Beijing, China (B.S., 2011)
  • Pharmaceutical Science

Admissions

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)