Dr. Luis G. Perla is a patent agent in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he is a member of the firm's patents and innovations practice. He assists with the preparation and prosecution of patent applications, and freedom to operate in the fields of organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.

Prior to joining the firm, Lu worked as a technology analyst at the Innovation Ventures, Office of Technology Management at the University of California, San Francisco conducting new technology assessments for patentability and commercialization of research in the fields of biochemical, medicinal, biological, medical device, and bioinformatics. Additionally, he was a patent analyst performing prior art searches for the completion of written opinion for PCT applications.

Lu conducted his doctoral research at the University of Notre Dame on main group element nanoparticles, specifically organically functionalized Zintl Ions. He focused on the synthetic development of nanoparticle aggregation techniques with an expertise in various physical and computational characterization techniques. Furthermore, he completed a post-doctoral appointment at the University of California, Davis, studying the applications of main-group metal mediated catalysis, i.e., hydrogenation, carbon-carbon cross coupling, via the use of sterically encumbering ligands.