Pictured above is the winning OrganOx team with Master Engineer Eur Ing Penny Taylor, JP at the Royal Academy of Engineering Awards Dinner on 8 July 2025

OrganOx

OrganOx has developed two devices that maintain livers and kidneys in a functioning state outside the body for at least twice as long as conventional cold preservation techniques. The device for livers is dramatically increasing the number of transplants for patients, eradicating night-time operations for clinicians, and reducing overall healthcare costs for providers. A third, patient-connected device in development can also be used to provide ‘liver dialysis’ using either a human or porcine organ outside the body, to help patients in liver failure to recover without the need for a transplant.  

Operating at body temperature (37ºC), the devices replicate the physiological conditions of an organ within the body by perfusing it with a red-cell suspension reconstituted from donor blood of the same blood type. This allows fully automated, operator-independent preservation of an organ in a functioning state outside the body for periods of up to 24 hours clinically and several days pre-clinically.

The technology, which was initially designed to preserve livers, has enabled over 6,000 transplants across four continents and twelve countries. Medical facilities adopting the technology have reported up to a 30% net increase in transplants, with waiting times and waiting list mortality cut by more than half. 

The technology for preserving livers, and its more recent counterpart for kidneys, represent two of the most complex medical devices ever designed and built in the UK. With hydraulic, pneumatic and haemodynamic sub-systems and remote-access capabilities, the devices can be used safely in operating theatres, during transport by road or in flight, or when directly connected to a patient when providing extracorporeal liver support.

  • Professor Constantin Coussios -Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
  • Professor Peter Friend – Co-founder & Chief Medical Officer
  • Dr Toni Day – Global Director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs
  • Andy Self – Senior Vice President of New Ventures
  • Daniel Voyce – Senior Vice President of Product Development and Innovation
  • Chris Morris – Director of Clinical Services, New Ventures
  • Craig Marshall – Chief Executive Officer
  • Jacob Barrett – New Product Development Manager
  • Matt Ellen – Software Engineer
  • Clint Watts – Head of Software
  • Richard Kent – Head of Product Engineering
  • Rupa Basu – Chief Commercial Officer
  • Jessica Day – New Product Development Manager 

The MacRobert Award is the UK’s premier prize for engineering innovation. The presentation of the Award recognises outstanding innovation coupled with tangible societal benefit and proven commercial success.

Originally founded by the MacRobert Trust, the Award is now presented and run by the Royal Academy of Engineering, with significant financial support from the Worshipful Company of Engineers. Each year the winning team receives a gold medal, widespread publicity, a £50,000 prize and an exclusive weekend away at Douneside House. The 2025 MacRobert Award winner was announced on 8 July 2025.

The Worshipful Company of Engineers Charitable Trust (the Engineers Trust) promotes the contributions of engineers to benefits to society, education and research, and the relief of hardship and poverty.

Other Finalists

Microsoft Azure Fibre for their revolutionary hollow core optical fibre technology – replacing traditional glass with air – dramatically enhancing data transmission, speed and energy efficiency. 

Synthesia for developing the world’s first text to video platform pioneering AI video and enabling users to create lifelike, multilingual videos using hyper-realistic digital avatars—without the need for cameras or studios.