Overview

Jay Kugler DeYoung’s practice emphasizes U.S. and foreign patent prosecution, opinion work, and strategic counseling, primarily in biotechnology and other life sciences. She focuses on helping academic and research institutions, hospitals, and small- to mid-sized biotech companies protect their cutting-edge and foundational scientific discoveries with strong intellectual property rights.

Jay’s graduate work included cloning, mutating, and expressing potassium and chloride channels in mammalian cells and Xenopus laevis oocytes, as well as using biochemistry, electrophysiology, and fluorescence and confocal imaging to look at the function of those channels in living cells.

Jay’s practice includes prosecution of patent applications in all areas of life sciences, such as cell and gene therapies; various technologies relating to microbial production of therapeutic and nutritional compounds; recombinant nucleic acid and protein products, and methods of producing and using them, including in therapeutics, foods, and neutraceuticals; methods of treating human and animal disease; transgenic animals and cell lines; immunology and virology (including viral vectors, methods of treating viral infections and producing viruses); and vaccines. Special areas of expertise include gene and genome editing (e.g., using CRISPR, TALEs, and ZFNs); translational and transcriptional modulation; stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells; diagnostic, prognostic, and pharmacogenomic biomarkers (e.g., genomic, proteomic, and metabolic biomarkers); next generation sequencing; assays; therapies and diagnostics for autoimmune diseases, mental illnesses, and cancers, including immunotherapies for cancers such as the administration of antibodies or engineered cells; and molecular design and modeling of drugs.

Jay is chair of the firm’s women’s initiative, EMPOWER (Enrichment, Mentorship, Partnering, Opportunities, Wisdom, Excellence, and Responsibility), which promotes the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women on the firm’s legal staff. As chair, Jay supports Fish’s ongoing efforts to improve its culture of intentional inclusion. She leads the firm’s biennial EMPOWER summits, which provide women at all experience levels throughout the firm with an opportunity to make meaningful connections with each other, and develops strategies to attract and retain women both at the firm and in the legal profession.

Professional associations

  • Board of the Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS)
  • Board of the Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair (MSEF) Organization

Pro bono activities

Board of the Scituate Animal Shelter