Mark F. Vickers PhD

Mark Vickers is a partner in the Ottawa office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. A member of our Intellectual Property Group and National Biotech and Pharmaceutical Group, he has been a Canadian patent agent since 2006 and a US patent agent since 2009. Mark’s practice focuses on preparing and prosecuting patent applications in fields related to life sciences, biotechnology, therapeutics, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and chemistry. He advises on the development and management of patent portfolios, and on IP due diligence. Mark works with clients in the private and public sectors, including universities, life sciences companies from start-ups to established companies, as well as individual inventors.

Mark carried out doctoral and postdoctoral research in biochemistry and oncology, and gained experience in anti-cancer vaccine development at a Canadian biotechnology company.

• Drafting and prosecuting patent applications in fields related to life sciences, biotechnology, therapeutics, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and chemistry.
• Advising on patentability, validity, infringement and freedom-to-operate issues.
• Conducting intellectual property due diligence.
• Counselling clients on international patent strategies and portfolio management.
• Advising and assisting with Canadian university technology transfer.

• Co-Author, "Navigating the Patent Prosecution Highway in Canada," Life Sciences Canada, 2014 (with Jennifer Raoul).
• ​King, Damaraju, Vickers et al., “A comparison of the transportability, and its role in cytotoxicity, of clofarabine, cladribine, and fludarabine by recombinant human nucleoside transporters produced in three model expression systems,” Molecular Pharmacology, 2006, 69(1): 346-53.
• Vickers et al., “Uridine recognition motifs of human equilibrative nucleoside transporters 1 and 2 produced in saccharomyces cerevisiae,” Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids, 2004, 23.
• Zhang, Visser, Vickers et al., “Uridine Binding Motifs of Human Concentrative Nucleoside Transporters 1 and 3 Produced in Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” Molecular Pharmacology, 2003, 64:1512-20.
• Vickers et al.,“Comparison of the interaction of uridine, cytidine and other pyrimidine nucleoside analogues with recombinant human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 2 (hENT2) produced in Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” Biochemistry and Cell Biology, 2002, 80: 639-644
• Yao, Ng, Vickers et al.,“Functional and molecular characterization of nucleobase transport by recombinant human and rat ENT1 and ENT2 equilibrative nucleoside transport proteins: Chimeric constructs reveal a role for the ENT2 helix 5-6 region in nucleobase translocation,” Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2002, 277: 24938-48.
• Visser, Vickers et al.,“Mutation of residue 33 of human equilibrative nucleoside transporters 1 and 2 alters sensitivity to inhibition of transport by dilazep and dipyridamole,” Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2001, 277: 395-401.
• Vickers et al., “Functional production of mammalian and bacterial members of the concentrative nucleoside transporter (CNT) family of membrane proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” Molecular Membrane Biochemistry, 2000, 18: 73-79.
• Vickers et al., “Nucleoside transporter proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Demonstration of a transporter (FUI1) with high uridine selectivity in plasma membranes and a transporter (FUN26) with broad nucleoside selectivity in intracellular membranes,” 2000, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 34: 25931-38.
• Vickers et al., “Nucleoside transporter proteins: emerging targets for drug discovery,” 2000, Emerging Therapeutic Targets, 4: 515-39.
• Jennings, Hao, Cabrita, Vickers et al., “Distinct regional distribution of human equilibrative nucleoside transporter proteins 1 and 2 (hENT1 and hENT2) in the central nervous system,” Neuropharmacology, 2000, 40: 722-31.
• Vickers et al., “Functional production and reconstitution of the human equilibrative nucleoside transporter (hENT1) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: binding of nitrobenzylthioinosine to recombinant hENT1 and a glycosylation-defective derivative (hENT1/N48Q),” Biochemical Journal, 1999, 339: 21-32.
• Hogue, Ellison, Vickers & Cass, “Functional complementation of a membrane transport deficiency in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by recombinant ND4 fusion protein,” Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun, 1997, 238: 811-16.
• Lu, Vickers & Kerbel, “Interleukin 6: a fibroblast-derived growth inhibitor of human melanoma cells from early but not advanced stages of tumor progression,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 1992, 89: 9215-19.

• ​Recognized in IAM Patent 1000 — The World's Leading Patent Practitioners 2015 for Patent Prosecution.