Effie is a registered patent agent with a research background in chemistry. Her practice encompasses prosecuting patents, preparing freedom-to-operate analyses, and conducting IP due diligence, primarily for clients in the life sciences and health care industries. She focuses her work on innovations involving chemistry and pharmaceuticals.

Prior to joining Mintz, Effie was a patent agent at an international law firm, where she prosecuted US patents, collaborated with agents in non-US jurisdictions, and advised clients on patent strategy.

Effie earned her PhD in chemical biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she was a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow and a National Institutes of Health Chemistry-Biology Interface trainee. Her doctoral research explored the design, synthesis, and validation of smart molecular contrast agents for use in fluorescence and photoacoustic imaging for use in applications in imaging cellular and mammalian disease models.

While earning her doctorate, Effie worked as a commercialization analyst in the university’s Office of Technology Management, where she reviewed inventions in engineering, medicine, chemistry, software, and electronics to assess the patentability and marketability of intellectual property owned by the university.

As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, Effie synthesized and evaluated libraries of biomimetic materials for selective metal chelation for use in various applications, including contaminated water remediation and addressing blood toxicity.