DNAForge & MTC Berkeley: AI × Biology Hackathon

Solve a real biology problem using the latest advances in AI!

On November 14th in Berkeley, we’re bringing biologists, AI engineers and software builders together for DNAForge’s AI × Biology Hackathon, co-hosted with MTC Berkeley.

Saturday, November 14th, 20269:00 AM–9:00 PM Pacific · Berkeley, CAAbout 100 participants

Applications close November 6. The event is full, and new applications join the waitlist. Final waitlist decisions are scheduled for November 7. Everyone applies individually, including teammates.

Event details: dnaforge.com/hackathon

What you’ll get

Tackle challenges in therapeutics, biosecurity or agricultural resilience with compute and scientific tools supported by our sponsors.

Meet companies that are hiring and get in-person feedback from scientists, engineers and founders.

Compete for $1,500+ in cash prizes, with sponsor credits and opportunities to commercialize selected projects.

Challenges

Therapeutics. Help researchers design, evaluate or deliver new treatments.

Biosecurity. Build practical defenses for biological risks, laboratory safety and preparedness.

Agricultural resilience. Work on healthier crops, stronger food systems and biological climate adaptation.

Raycaster. Build AI research tools and evaluation environments using real, lightly redacted investigational new drug (IND) filings.

Biobase — Find the Right Patients. A featured challenge within therapeutics focused on finding suitable patients and samples for clinical trials and biomarker research. Indicate your interest in the optional three-sentence application question.

Who should apply

Biology students, early-career scientists, wet-lab researchers, computational biologists, clinicians, agricultural scientists, AI researchers, software engineers and designers. Bring your biology expertise, engineering skills or both.

Judges and mentors

Akira Nishii, GXL

Alex Telford, Convoke

Ali Mottaghi, clinical AI

Aqib Hasnain, Mithrl

Ben Shababo, Modal

Bruno Balen, Co-founder and co-CEO, ANI / Ani Biome

Bryan Tegomoh, physician-epidemiologist

Colin Cook, XDemics

Elsaid Salem, Verisk

George Trushevskij, Keenable

Grisha Sheldunov, Founder, Amphiform

Kishandth Sivapalasundaram, CTO at Ryne

Kshitij “Tjay” Dhyani, Founding Engineer, Doublespeed

Mariëlle van Kooten, Powerhouse Biology

Max Kemper, Stanford University, Bioengineering

Muaz Sadeia, Eikon Therapeutics

Nicholas Jackson, Vertility Health, Inc.

Nick Heredia, PhD, VP of R&D at SafeTraces

Nouf Alhazmi, Founder and CEO, Plastus

Phil Spuhler, Sansimeon

Ram Akavaram, Senior Staff Data Infrastructure Engineer, Foresite Labs

Ridvan Yesiloglu, biomedical AI

Robert Lee, NeuroSpike

Roya Amini-Naieni, Trilobio

Sam Seymour, Biobase

Sanat Mishra, BioStack

Sean Jungbluth, BioKEA

Yash Gaur, VP of Deployment at Synphony

Yash Inani, Founding AI Engineer, Velanir

Applying and teams

Come with teammates or on your own. Everyone applies individually, and we’ll help admitted participants form teams before the event.

Every teammate must submit their own application. Listing teammates does not apply for them.

Admitted participants will be able to explore permitted challenge materials before choosing a challenge. Teams can adjust at check-in.

Applying does not guarantee admission. DNAForge reviews each application for this limited-capacity event.

The event is in person. Every applicant must confirm they can attend in Berkeley for the full participant program.

Admissions timeline

November 6: Final day to submit an individual application. New applications join the waitlist.

November 7: Final waitlist decisions.

Host and event support

Hosted by DNAForge and MTC Berkeley.

Supported by Modal, Boltz, Tamarind Bio, GXL, Talus Bio, BenchFlow, Synphony, Biobase, Raycaster, Carbon Fellowship, Sage Bionetworks and Living Models, with participant credits also supported by Nebius and Keenable.

Applicant data: DNAForge and event sponsors can view your name, email address, application answers, LinkedIn profile, any other links you provide, and application status. Sponsors may contact applicants, including those not admitted, for recruiting and marketing.