Trinity College’s approach to entrepreneurship has a long history, accelerated in 1970 by then Senior Bursar Dr John Bradfield, who saw the potential of agricultural land north of Cambridge to create Europe’s first science park for tech-led industry.

Today, Cambridge Science Park (CSP) is home to more than 140 companies, employing 5,000 people, and the Bradfield Centre provides workspace for 300 entrepreneurs and start-ups and events for local tech community.

The Trinity Bradfield Prize, launched in 2018, has further embedded CSP in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the UK.

During this period Trinity Fellows have spun-out their research into highly successful commercial ventures.

Among them Sir Gregory Winter, former Master of Trinity and a serial biotech entrepreneur who founded Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) (acquired by AstraZeneca), Domantis (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline) and Bicycle Therapeutics, with which he is still involved.

CAT discovered the first human antibody-based drug, Adalimumab (trade name Humira), to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease. Today, therapeutic antibodies account for a third of all new treatments.

Sir Shankar Balasubramian co-founded Solexa based on his fundamental research into DNA in order to develop a commercial sequencer. At the time, the young academics had to convince investors there would be a market for Solexa’s products.

But their technique worked and in 2007 the US company Illumina acquired Solexa. By analysing fragments of DNA simultaneously, the time needed for sequencing, and thus the cost, was reduced substantially. Today Illumina dominates the NGS market; the Solexa-Illumina Sequencing technique is thought to account for 90% of DNA sequencing.

Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald founded Cyted after trials of the Cytosponge or ‘pill on a thread’ identified ten times more people with the pre-cancerous condition Barrett’s oesophagus than the conventional detection methods. This research paves the way for GP surgeries to use the Cytosponge – a quick, simple and better-tolerated test than an endoscopy.