Chantal is a Senior Policy Analyst contributing to many of PHG foundations projects including B-CAST, polygenic scores and Innovative Science. As a senior analyst she supports the science team in identifying and developing projects, including in the area of polygenic scores and cancer.
Chantal has a diverse background including genetics, healthcare, cancer, and epidemiology with a specific interest in the challenges involved in translating genomic research into health care. Her interests encompass genomics, cancer, early detection, prevention, clinical data utilisation, and public health. Her previous work experience ranges across diagnostics, cancer registries and breast cancer risk stratification.
She has a PhD from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa where she looked at host genetic factors for susceptibility to tuberculosis, and a MSc in Medical Genetics from the University of Glasgow. After working at a Somatic Cell Genetics diagnostic department as a R&D scientist developing new molecular tests for implementation, Chantal moved to the South African National Cancer Registry as the lead scientist on the Johannesburg Cancer Study – at the time the largest study of its kind. She has also worked on breast cancer risk stratification as a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge.
- Host genomics: lessons for infectious disease
- Heat, health and human genetics
- Evaluation of polygenic score applications
- Polygenic scores for cancer
- Implementing polygenic scores for cardiovascular disease into NHS Health Checks
- Polygenic scores and clinical utility
- Personalising breast cancer prevention – bridging the gap between research and policy
- Polygenic scores, risk and cardiovascular disease
- Personalising prevention for breast cancer
- Data: the catalyst for health and climate change action
- Pioneering change: how pharmacogenomics is shaping healthcare
- World’s first gene editing therapy now in the UK for sickle cell disease
- Viral Genetic Surveillance, the canary in the coal mine for emerging diseases – a look at avian flu
- A much needed call to action – the launch of the Global Heat Health Resilience statement
- Biomarkers and their clinical utility in prevention
- Viruses for good – the case for phages
- Examining whether viruses can combat antimicrobial resistance
- Cancer, screening, and polygenic scores
- Bringing diversity to the reference genome
- Bringing order to polygenic score reporting
- Pathogen genomics initiative to boost disease control in Africa
- Breast cancer screening – debate continues
- Diversity, genomics and global health
- Biomarkers for personalised prevention of chronic diseases: a common protocol for three rapid scoping reviews. Syst Rev 13, 147 (2024). Plans-Beriso, E., Babb de Villiers, C., Petrova, D. Turner, H., Blackburn, L. et al. https://doi.org/10.1186/
s13643-024-02554-9 - A genomic perspective on climate change. EBioMedicine 98:104871. 2023. Forzano, F., Babb de Villiers C., Farley M., Fowler H., Taylor R.W. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104871
- Towards implementation of comprehensive breast cancer risk prediction tools in health care for personalised prevention
Moorthie S, Babb de Villiers C, Burton H, Kroese M, Antoniou A.C., Bhattacharjee P, Garcia-Closas M, Hall P, Schmidt M.K.. Preventive Medicine, Vol 159. 6 May 2022. - How can we address the uncertainties regarding the potential clinical utility of polygenic score-based tests?
Moorthie S, Hall A, Babb de Villiers C, Janus J, Brigden T, Blackburn L, Kroese M. Future Medicine. 15 March 2022. - Understanding polygenic models, their development and the potential application of polygenic scores in healthcare
Babb de Villiers C, Kroese M, Moorthie S. Journal of Medical Genetics Online First. 6 May 2020.
