Oxford Chemistry team success at Entrepreneurship Forum

A team of DPhil students from Oxford’s Department of Chemistry has taken second place at the Reuben College Entrepreneurship Forum 2026 with Lumamab, an emerging biotechnology venture based on research from the Department.

From left: DPhil student Raman van Wee; Professor Lionel Tarassenko, President of Reuben College; DPhil student Alex Hannon; Dr Vishal Gulati; and DPhil student Dan Loewenthal. Image: Simon Devenport.

Established in 2023, the annual Forum aims to encourage entrepreneurship among Oxford graduate students, connecting them with founders, investors and experts from across the University’s innovation ecosystem and beyond.

Antibodies are the most widely used class of biological drug, but many potential antibody treatments fail during development. Lumamab is developing a platform that observes how antibodies cluster their targets at the molecular level, with the aim of  increasing the success rate in later-stage clinical trials.

The Lumamab team comprises DPhil students Dan Loewenthal, Alex Hannon and Raman van Wee, supervised by Professor Philipp Kukura. Lumamab was one of six ventures selected to pitch to a panel chaired by Cath Spence (Oxford University Innovation), Katharina Ramshorn (Oxford Science Enterprises), David Mott (Oxford Capital Partners) and Vishal Gulati (Recode Ventures). Lumamab was named runner-up, securing a £10,000 award.

The funding will support the next stages of establishing Lumamab and developing its technology for applications in antibody drug development.