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Three women named Britain’s Brightest Young Scientists

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Three women have been named winners of the UK young scientist awards, the country’s largest unrestricted prize for young researchers, marking only the second time all laureates have been female.

Thi Hoang Duong (Kelly) Nguyen, Maxie M. Roessler and Paola Pinilla each received £100,000 at a ceremony held at Banqueting House in London on 24 February 2026.

The remaining six finalists were awarded £30,000 each.

The winners were selected from nine finalists and a wider field of 91 nominees drawn from 46 academic and research institutions across the UK.

An independent jury chose one laureate in each of three categories: life sciences, chemical sciences, and physical sciences and engineering.

Nicholas B. Dirks is president and chief executive of The New York Academy of Sciences and chair of the awards’ scientific advisory council.

Dirks said: “This is a remarkable group of laureates whose work reflects both scientific brilliance and real-world impact.

“Notably, this marks the second time in the history of the Blavatnik Awards in the United Kingdom that all three laureates are women scientists.

“On behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences, we celebrate the representation and success of women in science and congratulate these winning laureates.”

Nguyen, a molecular biologist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, was recognised for research into telomerase, an enzyme that helps protect the ends of chromosomes during cell division.

Her work sheds light on how disruptions in telomerase activity are linked to premature ageing and cancer.

She used cryo-electron microscopy, a technique that allows scientists to visualise biological structures at extremely high resolution, to produce the first atomic-level model of the enzyme.

Roessler, a bioinorganic chemist at Imperial College London, was recognised for developing new methods that reveal how cells generate energy through rapid electron transfer.

Her findings could inform future work on catalysts and the development of new functional materials.

Pinilla, an astrophysicist at University College London, was recognised for research into how planets form.

Using telescope data and computer modelling, she identified structures in protoplanetary discs, rings of gas and dust around young stars, that trap dust and support planet formation.

Sir Leonard Blavatnik, founder of Access Industries and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, said: “The exceptional talent celebrated through these awards reflects the creativity and ambition that continue to place the UK at the forefront of scientific advancement.

“It is a privilege to recognise their work and to support the next stage of their scientific journeys.”

The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists are open to UK-based researchers aged 42 or under.

Now in their ninth year in the UK, the awards also run parallel programmes in the US and Israel.

Since launching in the UK in 2017, 73 honourees have received nearly £3.3m in prize funding.

By the end of 2026, the awards are expected to have distributed more than US$20m to over 500 scientists and engineers worldwide.

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Women’s Health Week Europe 2026 opens pitch applications for mainstage showcase at The Emirates Stadium

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Women’s Health Week Europe 2026 has opened applications for its flagship start-up Pitches, giving women’s health innovators the chance to present on the mainstage at The Emirates Stadium in London on 7-8 October.

16 finalists will be selected across two categories: Medical Devices & Therapeutics and Consumer & Tech, with the shortlisted companies receiving the opportunity to pitch in front of 700+ investors, corporates, other innovators and strategic partners actively seeking solutions that can scale.

Two categories, one stage

The Medical Devices & Therapeutics category is open to companies working across medical devices, therapeutics and pharma innovation, regulated digital health, and deep-tech or science-led platforms.

The Consumer & Tech category covers consumer health and wellness brands, digital health platforms, wearables and connected data, employer and payor-led solutions, and commerce and marketplace businesses.

Any company treating a condition that affects women exclusively, differently, or disproportionately is eligible to apply.

Applications are completely free, so what do you have to lose?

Apply to pitch at WHW Europe 2026 now.

What’s in it for you?

Unmatched exposure

Present in front of 700+ investors, corporates, clinicians, and strategic partners actively seeking solutions that can scale.

With WHW Europe 2026 relocating to The Emirates Stadium and expanding to 700+ attendees across two stages, the 2026 edition represents the largest platform the series has offered to date.

A proven platform

The WHW Pitch Sessions have become one of the most commercially significant showcases in women’s health, with previous cohorts including companies that have gone on to raise investment and secure major strategic partnerships. 2024 alumni BoobyBiome, closed a £2.5M seed round in the year following their pitch at WHW Europe.

The Watchlist

All registered applicants will have the opportunity to be featured in The Watchlist, WHW Europe’s official directory of women’s health innovators to know, giving companies visibility beyond the pitch stage itself.

Applications close 28 August 2026.

Find out more about WHW Europe.

Apply to pitch at WHW Europe.

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Women’s Health Innovation Summit opens submissions for 2026 Innovation Showcase

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The Women’s Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) has announced that submissions are  open for the 2026 Innovation Showcase, giving early and growth-stage start-ups the  chance to present their solutions to the most influential audience in women’s health.

Taking place October 13–15 at Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, Massachusetts, WHIS  brings together more than 1,000 decision-makers from across the women’s health  ecosystem — investors, payers, health systems, pharma leaders, and employers — all  under one roof.

Selected companies will pitch live on stage to an audience with the funding, expertise,  and connections to accelerate their growth.

Past participants have walked away with  investor introductions, commercial partnerships, and clinical collaborations that  moved from conversation to contract.

WHIS is where the women’s health ecosystem comes together to get deals done,” said Sarah Rowlands, marketing director.

“The Innovation Showcase puts promising start ups directly in front of the people who can take them to the next level.”

The showcase sits at the heart of a three-day programme spanning digital health,  therapeutics, diagnostics, and consumer health.

Previous attendees have included  representatives from Mayo Clinic, CVS Health, Eli Lilly, Brigham and Women’s Hospital,  Alumni Ventures, Muse Capital, and Maverick Ventures, among hundreds of others.

Applications are open now. Start-ups can submit at

www.whisusa.com/attend/start-ups

About WHIS

Now in its eighth year, the Women’s Health Innovation Summit is the largest global  gathering of senior leaders shaping the future of women’s health.

Organised by Kisaco  Research, WHIS unites providers, health plans, employers, regulators, pharma,  investors, and innovators to increase deal flow, expand reimbursement, improve  access, and deliver better health outcomes for women at every stage of life.

WHIS 2026 takes place October 13–15 at Encore Boston Harbor, Everett, MA.

Learn more at www.whisusa.com

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Meet the shortlist: Company of the Year

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The third annual Femtech World Awards ceremony is almost here. And today, we’re excited to reveal the shortlist for Company of the Year, sponsored by Femovate.

This award exists to recognise a company that doesn’t just build a product, but shifts the entire landscape of women’s health.

The winner will be an organisation that has demonstrated exceptional leadership in addressing women’s health needs through groundbreaking products, services, or platforms – one that is not only advancing care today but actively shaping the future of global femtech.

Femovate, our sponsor for this category, knows this territory well.

As the global femtech incubator and a true catalyst for change in women’s health, Femovate uses design to fuel innovation across every stage of a woman’s health journey,  from proactive prevention to early detection and personalised treatment.

With over US$2 million in design capital invested, 30 products launched, and 7 FDA clearances supported across their portfolio, they are uniquely placed to champion the kind of bold, rigorous company-building this award celebrates.

Congratulations to the shortlist and thank you to everyone who entered or nominated.

Company of the Year Shortlist

Founded by physicist Dr Elina Berglund Scherwitzl, Co-Founder and CEO, Natural Cycles created the world’s first FDA-cleared and CE-marked contraceptive app, establishing digital contraception as a credible and regulated category in women’s healthcare.

Achieving these clearances required extensive clinical trials and rigorous scientific validation, setting a new benchmark for digital products in the femtech space.

In doing so, Natural Cycles helped define the regulatory pathway for the industry — meaning any company looking to develop digital contraceptives today must meet the same high scientific and regulatory standards that Natural Cycles pioneered.

ŌURA, the creator of Oura Ring, stands at the forefront of global femtech, redefining how women understand and manage their health through continuous innovation, research, and responsible AI.

Oura exemplifies what it means to drive meaningful impact in a historically underserved space by delivering personalised insights across women’s health – from menstruation, to pregnancy, perimenopause, and beyond.

That leadership is visible across ŌURA’s growing women’s health ecosystem. Features such as Cycle Insights, Period Prediction, Fertile Window, and Pregnancy Insights are designed to help women interpret changes across different life stages using continuous signals including temperature trends, sleep, stress, activity, and recovery.

Rather than offering one-size-fits-all tracking, ŌURA brings context to the complexity of women’s physiology—helping members see how hormonal shifts can shape readiness, sleep quality, recovery, and daily wellbeing.

Youterus Health is transforming how uterine health is understood, diagnosed, and treated across underserved markets.

Operating at the intersection of research, technology, and care delivery, the company has built an integrated platform that converts women’s lived experiences into structured health data, enabling earlier diagnosis, improved care pathways, and more equitable access to treatment,

At the core of this innovation is the WOMB Index—a first-of-its-kind, narrative-based diagnostic tool that captures both quantitative and experiential data on uterine health conditions such as fibroids, endometriosis, and heavy menstrual bleeding.

This is complemented by an AI-enabled platform that supports multilingual data collection, real-time symptom tagging, and population-level insights, creating a new standard for how women’s health data is generated and used.

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