Kester Coutinho
Technical Advisor
Kester Coutinho is a technical advisor in the intellectual property group. Prior to joining Ropes & Gray, Kester received his PhD in Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
For his doctoral research, Kester spearheaded a moonshot aimed at the precision-engineering of a new generation of immune-like cell-based therapies using synthetic biology and protein engineering approaches. During the course of this work, Kester combined high-parameter and imaging flow cytometry tools with machine learning algorithms to develop a single-cell structure-function atlas of heterogeneous mergers and acquisitions occurring between immune predator cells and cancer prey cells. Owing to his undergraduate training, which included research experiences at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Harvard Medical School, Kester’s technical portfolio includes biophysics, biomechanics, electron microscopy, computational modeling, autoimmunity, and preclinical trials.
Experience
- Assisting a global pharmaceutical company with a pre-litigation investigation concerning multiple biologics patents under the BPCIA.
Publications
- Co-author, “Metabolic compartmentalization at the leading edge of metastatic cancer cells,” Frontiers in Oncology (2020)
- Co-author, “Twist1 induced epithelial dissemination requires Prkd1 signaling,” Cancer Research (2019)
- Coutinho and Inoue, “Deconstructing and constructing innate immune functions using molecular sensors and actuators,” Proceedings of SPIE, Sensing and Analysis Technologies for Biomedical and Cognitive Applications (2016)
- Co-author, “Twist1+ epithelial cells retain adhesive and proliferative capacity throughout dissemination,” Biology Open (2016)
- Co-author, “New insights into the role of MMP14 in metabolic balance,” PeerJ (2016)
- Co-author, “Twist-1 induced dissemination preserves epithelial identity and requires E-cadherin,” Journal of Cell Biology (2014)
Education
- PhD (Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology), Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 2020
- BA (Molecular and Cell Biology), Honors with High Distinction in General Scholarship, University of California, Berkeley, 2013