Lab Challenge: Fight the virus! at the Oxford IF Festival
Updated: Dec 20, 2025
Lab Challenge is an interactive lab-themed activity aimed at younger children - step into a drug discovery lab to perform experiments and find a drug to fight a virus! We had a great time running Lab Challenge at the Science Oxford Centre as part of the Oxford IF Science + Ideas Festival on 15 October 2023. Over 90 young scientists undertook our screening, cytotoxicity and compound building experiments, recorded their results and found our antiviral compound!
Oxford IF Festival 2023 Screening compounds Cytotoxicity station Compound building
We had great engagement throughout the day, and feedback from participating children (and their parents/carers) was positive, with 86% rating the activity 5* or 4*.
Feedback Feedback Feedback Well done!
Finally, thanks to our Ph.D. student volunteers - Gemma Cooper, Brandon Moulds, and Katie Silver - for their help setting up and running Lab Challenge!
Brandon Maitreyi Gemma Katie Setting up Setting the scene Charlie's Angels volunteers!
If you'd like to learn more about Lab Challenge, or would like us to host the activity at your school, please do get in touch.
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