Yingying Cai

Dr. Yingying Cai is a science law clerk and registered patent agent in the firm’s Business Law department and a member of its Intellectual Property group. She joined Goodwin in 2020.

Dr. Cai assists life sciences companies, universities, and investors with patent prosecution issues, patent portfolio development and life-cycle management, competitive landscape reviews, freedom-to-operate analyses, and IP diligence. Her technical experience spans various areas of the life sciences industry, focusing on small molecules, peptide and protein therapeutics, antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, nucleotide-based therapeutics, and lipid-based drug delivery.

Prior to joining Goodwin, Dr. Cai was a patent agent at Pieris Pharmaceuticals, where she managed a global patent portfolio in the areas of antibody mimetics, immuno-oncology, and respiratory diseases, oversaw day‑to-day prosecution matters, and supported IP-related executive decisions and business development activities.

Dr. Cai’s scientific research experience spans several laboratories and a broad range of disciplines, including chemistry, chemical biology, biochemistry, and structural biology. Dr. Cai conducted doctoral research focusing on structural-functional study and peptide-based drug design of G protein-coupled receptors. Dr. Cai is an author of research and review articles published in peer-reviewed journals including Chemical Communications, ACS Chemical Biology, Frontiers in Pharmacology, and PLOS ONE.