Bárbara Oliveira

Bárbara Oliveira is the Chief Clinical Officer and Co-Founder of Luminate Medical, a medical device start-up developing medical devices to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy for cancer treatment.

Bárbara is a biomedical engineer by background with international research experience, having earned her MEng from the NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal, and her PhD from the University of Galway, Ireland, both in the exploration of new modalities for breast cancer diagnosis.

Since then, Bárbara has continued focusing on the development of innovative medical solutions in the oncology space, ranging from idea to development, bench-testing, validation in clinical trials all the way through to commercialisation.

Bárbara is a resourceful innovator with strong critical thinking skills developed by working in multi-disciplinary environments, including academia and industry alongside engineers, clinicians, and researchers. Bárbara’s work has led her to lead multiple first-in-human medical device trials with patients, most recently, Luminate’s studies on the reduction of hair loss and peripheral neuropathy during chemotherapy.

Her vision is one of giving patients access to affordable and effective devices for chemotherapy side effects. Most recently, Bárbara was recognised with the MIT Innovators Under 35 Europe award in 2023, and the European Prize for Women Innovators – Rising Innovator award in 2024.