Bioengineer, PhD · Technology Transfer

Camille de Villiers
from the bench to the deal table

PhD bioengineer with 6+ years in disease diagnostics and nanotherapeutics, and 3+ years taking early-stage life science IP from the lab to licence — evaluating, protecting, and commercialising 30+ university research projects. I read the science and the deal.

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Camille de Villiers
30+IP projects commercialised
25+licensing & collab agreements closed
£100k+raised for innovation network
PhD '24Imperial College London

Profile

Science credibility, commercial fluency

I trained as a chemical and bioengineer — a BEng from Stellenbosch, an MPhil from Cambridge, and a PhD from Imperial College London in Prof Dame Molly Stevens' group, developing methods to characterise circulating extracellular vesicles as cancer biomarkers. Alongside the science, I built a parallel track in technology transfer: IP protection, patent prosecution, licensing, and spin-out strategy for early-stage life science research. I've since applied machine learning to biomarker discovery as a postdoc at Oxford, and worked start-up-side at a biodiscovery company. I move comfortably between a pipette and a term sheet.

Lab and fieldwork

Experience

Where I've worked

Jan 2026 – Present

Sparta Biodiscovery

Senior Scientist

R&D on new products, route-to-market and launch strategy, and client-facing technical expertise at an early-stage biodiscovery start-up.

Dec 2024 – Jan 2026

University of Oxford — Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery

Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Molly Stevens' Group

Led Raman-based, label-free characterisation of tumour and Parkinson's disease extracellular vesicles at the single-particle level; built the largest reported single-EV Raman spectral database and developed multivariate ML methods for biomarker analysis. Selected for the Saïd Business School Ideas2Impact programme. Co-supervised a PhD, an MRes and an undergraduate student.

Jun 2023 – Aug 2023

Sparta Biodiscovery

Business Development Associate

Data analysis, client reporting, and lab equipment/operations scoping for a growing start-up.

Jan 2018 – Oct 2020

Stellenbosch University — Innovus

Technology Transfer Officer

Managed a 30+ project IP commercialisation portfolio — due diligence, market analysis, patent prosecution, funding, and technology marketing. Negotiated and closed 25+ licensing, evaluation, service and collaboration agreements. Won the DSI-SARIMA Award for Early Career Excellence in Innovation Management.

2015 – 2020

Veolia Water Solutions · GardenGeek (Founder) · Fine Chemicals Corp · GSK

Process engineering & founder roles

Process engineering on Africa's largest membrane bioreactor water treatment works; founded an e-commerce business retailing smart gardening devices; chemical engineering internships at an ASPEN Pharmacare API manufacturer and GlaxoSmithKline.

Education

Academic foundation

Imperial College London — PhD, Bioengineering and Material Science

2020 – 2024 · supervised by Prof Dame Molly M. Stevens

High-throughput single-particle analysis of circulating extracellular vesicles from breast cancer patients for biomarker identification. 2022 Turing Scheme Global Fellow (Karolinska Institute). Presented at 3 European and 2 UK conferences.

University of Cambridge — MPhil, Advanced Chemical Engineering

2013 – 2014 · First Class Honours

Developed an arsenic-responsive nanoparticle biosensor for water quality measurement, published in a leading analytical chemistry journal. Full Cambridge Commonwealth Scholar.

Stellenbosch University — Postgraduate Diploma, Intellectual Property Law

2016 – 2017 · Cum Laude

Patent, trademark, copyright and digital-environment IP law.

Stellenbosch University — BEng, Chemical Engineering

2009 – 2012 · Cum Laude

Chairman's Prize for outstanding achievement; best final-year student in Material Science; SAIMM Prize in Mineral Processing.

Skillset

What I bring to the table

Science & data

Extracellular vesicle biology Raman spectroscopy Single-particle biomarker analysis Nanotherapeutics characterisation Python Pandas & EDA Scikit-learn / ML MATLAB & R

Commercial & venture

IP strategy & patent prosecution Licensing & spin-out creation Technical & commercial due diligence Market analysis Deal negotiation Fundraising Client-facing technical advisory Cross-sector collaboration

Why this matters for venture

Diligence on a deep-tech or life science deal usually needs two people: someone who can read the science, and someone who can read the deal. I've spent my career being both — trained to PhD level in the underlying biology and materials science, and practised in the IP, licensing and commercialisation mechanics that turn a lab result into a company. That combination is what I bring to a venture team.