Trinity Bradfield Prize 2024 winners announced

This year’s Trinity Bradfield Prize-winning innovations seek to help those affected by endometriosis, transform the care of people with Alzheimer’s, and cut carbon and costs by boosting the efficiency of power systems.

The winners, announced at the Bradfield Centre at Cambridge Science Park this week, are:

Lorna MacLean, who won first prize for Demetria, which aims to revolutionise the diagnosis of endometriosis through AI-assisted ultrasound scans.

Xufu Ren of PowerMatrix who won second prize for power systems technology that shrinks costs and boosts efficiency – cutting 100 million tonnes of CO2 annually.

Yizhu Yu, who third prize for Healthspan Biotics, which is developing probiotics that could transform Alzheimer’s care.

The Trinity Bradfield Prize awards a total of £30,000 in cash alongside a comprehensive programme of entrepreneurship workshops, mentoring and free membership of the Bradfield Centre, a thriving workplace for start-ups and a hub for a host of entrepreneur-focused events.

The former Master of Trinity and Nobel Laureate, Sir Gregory Winter, chairs the judging panel of and entrepreneurs and investors.

Last year’s winners, Ashraf Zarkan of BioTryp Therapeutics and Hendrik Runge of Cambridge Nucleomics, have made such strides that they jointly received the Angel Prize for commercial progress over the past year.

The Bradfield Centre was established by Trinity College in collaboration with the UK Government in 2017. Situated at the heart of Cambridge Science Park, the Bradfield Centre has become a start-up hotspot, attracting entrepreneurs determined to commercialise research innovations, often born at the University of Cambridge.

James Parton, Managing Director of the Bradfield Centre, congratulated this year’s winners of the Trinity Bradfield Prize, which he said was ever more popular.

‘Thanks to all of our partners and supporters that make the prize so special. This year’s applicants represented an amazing 34 departments and 24 colleges from the University of Cambridge,’ he said.

Photo: The winners Yizhu Yu, Lorna MacLean (left) and Xufu Ren (right) with Sir Gregory Winter.