Kei Yamaya focuses on patent drafting and prosecution for clients in the life sciences, biotechnology, and molecular engineering sectors. Drawing on research experience spanning CRISPR gene-editing, developmental biology, and high-resolution cytogenetics, Kei brings a profound scientific fluency to innovations at the intersection of biology and technology.

Most recently, Kei was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego, where she studied CRISPR-Cas9-based genome-editing systems and engineering novel CRISPR-based cancer therapeutics.

Kei earned her Ph.D. in developmental biology from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where she studied the molecular mechanisms that ensure accurate genetic inheritance during meiosis. Her doctoral research used advanced genetics and high-resolution microscopy in C. elegans to elucidate DNA repair pathways critical for maintaining genomic stability. She has authored and co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications, including a first-author paper featured on the cover of Nucleic Acids Research.

She earned her A.B. in molecular biology from Princeton University, where she conducted developmental biology research, analyzing Ras-MAPK signaling mutations and their effects on embryonic development.