Dr Rachel Atfield
Associate Director (Life Sciences)
Rachel is responsible for developing and commercialising new opportunities for all Life Sciences technologies with a focus on therapeutics and diagnostics technologies, medical devices and software, and medical apps.
Rachel’s role includes evaluating new inventions, managing IP protection and helping academics raise translational funding. She also builds teams of experts to develop new opportunities and determines the appropriate route for commercialisation, including licensing and company formation.
Rachel has completed a variety of deals, including a licence with a large US medical company for a technology to revolutionise diabetes treatment. She has particular experience of working in the field of psychiatry and cognition where she has negotiated licences with multiple partners including a US-based molecular diagnostics company. Rachel has helped many academic teams raise translational funding to develop projects at the University.
Before joining Cambridge Enterprise, Rachel worked as a Patent Analyst at Thomson Scientific, specialising in patent searching and patent-based intelligence for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Rachel has a BSc in Biology from Imperial College London and a PhD in Virology from the University of Cambridge.
Rachel joined Cambridge Enterprise in November 2006 as a Commercialisation Associate and became Commercialisation Manager in February 2011.
