Marcelle Dina Zita

Marcelle Dina Zita assists with technical analysis involving post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and federal district courts.

She completed her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, under the mentorship of Dr. Karl Boehme. Her doctoral research focused on investigating mechanisms of viral dissemination in vivo and viral-induced cardiac pathology using viral assays, genomics, and immunology-based assays. She pursued her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Luigi Adamo, M.D., Ph.D. at the John’s Hopkins Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine. Her research focused on elucidating inflammatory immune-mediated responses that drive chronic pediatric cardiac pathology to aid in the development of novel therapeutics. During her postdoctoral experience, she received the Toffler Scholar Award for her work in optimizing a mouse model that is empowering a better understanding of inflammatory and autoimmune mechanisms that drive the immunopathology of pediatric myocarditis in infants and young adults.