OrganOx, the University of Oxford medical technology spinout, has won the 2025 MacRobert Award – the UK’s most prestigious prize for engineering innovation – for its revolutionary organ preservation technology.
Founded by Magdalen College Fellow Professor Constantin Coussios and transplant surgeon Professor Peter Friend, OrganOx was awarded the £50,000 prize for its metra® device. This game-changing system maintains donor organs in a functioning state at body temperature for up to 24 hours, doubling preservation times and allowing surgeons to assess organ quality before transplantation.
The technology has already enabled over 6,000 successful transplants globally. Hospitals adopting the device have reported up to a 30% increase in transplant procedures, cutting waiting list mortality by more than half.
Co-founder Professor Constantin Coussios OBE FREng FMedSci said, “Each quality-assured organ that has functioned effectively in our devices outside the body saves the life of a patient… and gives that patient and their loved ones the gift of time and a quality of life previously thought irreclaimable. This achievement… would not have been possible without the academic, technological and translational excellence of the UK innovation ecosystem.”