Technology and Knowledge Transfer

Phil is Commercialisation Director in the Technology Transfer Team where he works to commercialise technologies from across the life sciences, with a particular interest in new medicines.

University of Cambridge spin out company PolyProx Therapeutics was established in 2019 with Phil’s support, raising £3.4m seed financing.

Prior to joining Cambridge Enterprise, Phil spent 17 years at Cancer Research Technology (CRT), the commercialisation arm of the charity Cancer Research UK, ultimately as Head of Commercial Portfolio. During his time at CRT, Phil established a strategic partnership with Newcastle University, and worked part-time across both organisations in a technology transfer role. Notably he led the formation of Newcastle University’s five-year cancer drug discovery alliance with Astex Pharmaceuticals, initiated Newcastle’s $31m part-monetization of its royalty interest in cancer drug Rubraca, and was CEO of Demuris Limited, a University spin-out company focussed on antibiotic drug discovery.

Phil has a PhD in developmental biology from the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research (now the Francis Crick Institute).

With an interest in training and coaching, Phil has been a member of PraxisAuril’s Professional Development Committee since May 2013 and helps to design and deliver courses on technology transfer and strategic partnerships.

Phil joined the Cambridge Enterprise team in March 2018.

Dafne works with Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) Department of Research and Development and Cambridge Enterprise to identify and commercialise intellectual property originating from research carried out within the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge.

She works closely with academics and clinicians to build business opportunities, paving the route to market and securing translational grant funding. She led commercial deals in the domain of stem cells technologies and cancer diagnostics.

She has held senior positions in the area of Market Intelligence and Business Strategy, and worked as an external consultant for several companies such as Roche, Novartis, Bayer, Merck Serono, Alexion, Takeda, Nestlé and Medtronic.

Before joining Cambridge Enterprise, Dafne worked as a Market Intelligence Analyst at Debiopharm International and as a Project Manager at Alcimed.

Dafne obtained a PhD in Biology from the Institute Curie (Paris, France) and the University Paris XI (Paris, France).

Dafne joined Cambridge Enterprise in January 2017.

Jennie works closely with others in both the Physical and Life Sciences teams to support commercialisation of research outputs primarily from the School of Physical Sciences and the School of Technology in the University of Cambridge.

With a focus on creating positive societal impact, Jennie is proactive in assessing technology with the most potential to be disruptive, and then working closely with our academic and internal stakeholders to find the best routes to market.

Prior to joining Cambridge Enterprise, Jennie worked as a Product Specialist for a major biotechnology company, with an emphasis on global regulatory compliance.

Jennie has a Masters degree in Chemistry from the University of Sussex and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. Jennie’s Master’s research focused on quantum dot synthesis for single molecule fluorescence applications for her Masters. This led her to study the aggregation of amyloid beta 42 (a peptide implicated in Alzheimer’s Disease) using single molecule fluorescence techniques and microfluidics during her PhD.

Jennie joined Cambridge Enterprise in August 2016.

Maggie works with researchers across the range of physical sciences to help them achieve impact from their research by building relationships with commercial organisations.    

During her time at Cambridge Enterprise, Maggie has led the licensing of university technologies to companies such as Lamina Dielectrics, Cambridge Graphene, Aurelius Environmental, and TE Wire & Cable (for a new design of thermocouple).  Maggie has also supported the formation of spin-out companies such as Metalysis, Enval, and Porotech (who won the 2018 postdoc business plan competition).   

Prior to joining Cambridge Enterprise, Maggie worked for 10 years at a multinational oil company in various roles, initially working to develop new automotive fuel and oil products, and later in the analysis of environmental and economic data to help formulate business strategy.     

She has a scientific background in physics, holding two degrees from the University of Cambridge: an MA in Natural Sciences, and a PhD in solid state physics.   

Maggie joined the Technology Transfer Office of the University, which later became Cambridge Enterprise, in March 2001.  

Gillian is the Commercialisation Director of the Technology Transfer Team, working with researchers to help them commercialise their research.

She has worked with scientists in the Physical Sciences space to bring together teams that have turned research ideas into investible opportunities, such as aqdot, Silicon Microgravity and Fluidic Analytics.

Gillian has previously worked in technical and business development roles in both small and multinational companies in the UK, US and Japan.

She holds a BA in Natural Sciences from Oxford University, a doctorate in laser application and an MBA.

Gillian joined Cambridge Enterprise in 2009.

Natalie is responsible for the coordination of our Physical Sciences intellectual property portfolio held by Cambridge Enterprise on behalf of the University. She is a member of Business Support, the team responsible for business intelligence as well as the administration and management of our portfolio of inventions, patents and agreements.

Natalie coordinates the execution of commercial and internal agreements put in place in relation to our Physical Sciences portfolio, as well as ensuring the relevant data is captured and maintained, thereby contributing to the integrity of Cambridge Enterprise’s portfolio data.

Prior to her current position, Natalie worked in several companies from heavy industry to medical materials in product development.

Natalie has a Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Sheffield.

Natalie joined Cambridge Enterprise in September 2013.

Laura is a Commercialisation Manager in the Technology Transfer Team where she works to commercialise technologies from across the life sciences.

She has experience in identifying, managing, developing and commercialising a range of life sciences IP. She has particular experience of working in the fields of stem cell research, medical devices and drug discovery and has worked on a variety of deals including licenses to spin-out comapnies and multi-national corporations. Laura helped support NoBACZ Healthcare, a wound care company, raise >£3 million since 2020. Laura has also supported multiple projects under development with Apollo Therapeutics and helped manage the University of Cambridge – GSK Open Innovation Drug Discovery Initiative at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst. As part of her role at Cambridge Enterprise, Laura spent five months on secondment as a Business Development Manager at one of Cambridge Enterprise’s spin-out companies, Cambridge Epigenetix.

Before joining Cambridge Enterprise, Laura worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Manchester, studying the regulation of cardiac function and disease by cell signalling pathways. Laura obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of York.

Laura joined Cambridge Enterprise in 2011.

Helen works across the Life Sciences Team, providing support for the evaluation, IP protection and licensing of technologies arising from the Schools of Biological Sciences and Clinical Medicine.

Recent support has been for the licensing of technologies to Phoremost, Storm Therapeutics and PredictImmune.

Prior to joining Cambridge Enterprise, Helen spent 15 years working for various SME’s in the biotech sector within the Cambridge region, where she held positions in process development and formulation for vaccines and biotherapeutics.

Helen has a PhD in Mucosal Glycobiology from the University of Manchester.

Helen joined Cambridge Enterprise in October 2013.

Iain is Interim Head of Technology Transfer at Cambridge Enterprise.


He is also Head of Life Sciences at Cambridge Enterprise, responsible for a team that is working across the life sciences sector from human health therapeutics to agritech and research tools. Iain has a PhD in Organic Chemistry (Sydney) and MBA (Cambridge).

The team has spun-out companies including X01 Therapeutics, Apcintex (now a Centessa company), DIOSynVax, NoBACZ Healthcare, Predictimmune Limited, PhoreMost, Z-factor and Cambridge Epigenetix. Iain, with colleagues from partner universities founded Apollo Therapeutics, a £40 million fund in early stage drug development and launched the Ceres Agritech Knowledge Exchange Partnership. Iain also led discussions with GSK in respect of the University of Cambridge-GSK open innovation drug discovery initiative based at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.

Iain joined Cambridge Enterprise in November 2003.

Emma is a Senior Commercialisation Associate in Life Sciences at Cambridge Enterprise responsible for identifying, managing, developing and commercialising a variety of life science IP.

Emma works with academics to secure translational funding and supports further development of IP and licensing – this has led to various multi-£m awards including several from Apollo Therapeutics, the BBSRC Super Follow-on-Fund, The LifeArc Centre for Therapeutics Discovery Programme, and several Seeding Drug Discovery Awards from the Wellcome Trust one of which has subsequently led to a collaboration and licence deal with MSD . She also supports projects as part of the University of Cambridge–GSK Open Innovation Drug Discovery Initiative at the Stevenage BioCatalyst.

Emma led the licence discussions with GSK for the GSK Drug Discovery Partnership with Academia projects at Cambridge, one of which has subsequently led to a licence deal with a US Biotech. She has also supported the licensing of university IP, including to Cambridge spin-outs Cambridge Epigenetix, Morphogen-IX and PolyProx Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Cambridge Enterprise, Emma spent 10 years in the pharma/biotech sector, initially with Oxford Diversity, then BioFocus, involving management of GPCR small molecule drug discovery and optimisation programmes to deliver data packages for subsequent partnering.

Emma has a PhD in Organic Chemistry, 11 academic publications and 4 patent families.

Emma joined Cambridge Enterprise in June 2005.

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.