Maria Vanegas PhD

Director, Licensing - Life Sciences

Maria S. Vanegas, PhD, is Senior Licensing Manager for Life Sciences at the Innovation Institute. She obtained her doctorate in Immunology from the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, MN. Following her doctoral training she began an internship at Mayo Clinic Ventures. During her internship she was exposed to various aspects of technology transfer including business development, patentability, and licensing. Dr. Vanegas was retained by Mayo Clinic Ventures as a Patent Liaison. Shortly thereafter Dr. Vanegas moved to Pittsburgh where she became a Technology Licensing Associate at the University Of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute. Dr. Vanegas currently handles the patenting and licensing of technologies in the life sciences space including research reagents, diagnostics, vaccines, and small molecules.