Bernal, Patrick C.

Retford Berko comes to Watts Guerra Craft after obtaining his license with the Washington, D.C. Bar and the US Patent and Trademark Bar. He spent 12 years working at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a Review Chemist and as a Compliance Officer at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Thus, he has years of experience working with medical devices, biologics and combination products regulations.

Retford completed his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with an emphasis in enzyme kinetics and mechanism. He then embarked on postdoctoral research in areas of steroid chemistry, clinical chemistry, tumor immunology and cancer prevention and control at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. After completing law school, Retford spent approximately three years at the USPTO as Patent Examiner where his focus was in the prosecution of chemical and drug compositions, biochemical assays and drug delivery medical devices systems.

• Has not only a J.D., but also a Ph.D. in Biochemistry.
• Postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Prevention and Control at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
• Research in Cancer Immunology and Chemotherapy at the University of Chicago.
• Research in Pharmacology of Steroids and Receptors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Significant international experience working for the FDA's Office of Compliance and Office of Device Evaluation.