Bio x AI Hackathon: $125K in Prizes for Agentic Biotech

We’re excited to introduce the Bio x AI Hackathon, a two-month global event designed to bring together researchers, engineers, and AI enthusiasts to build innovative solutions at the intersection of biotechnology, open-source and AI.

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Let’s dive into the details!

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TL;DR:

• The BIO x AI Hackathon will distribute $125,000 in prizes to the most impactful projects developed during the hackathon.
• The event will be fully virtual, with two in-person gatherings in Berlin.
• Judges & mentors includes biotech and AI experts from OpenAI, Stanford, Prime Intellect, Bio Protocol, ResearchHub, ID Theory & more!
• Participants can register for the hackathon until April 8.

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What Is the Bio x AI Hackathon?

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The Bio x AI Hackathon is a global event designed for developers, scientists, and entrepreneurs eager to explore the applications of AI in biotechnology.

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Most of the hackathon will be held online, with an in-person kickoff and conclusion in Berlin, creating an opportunity for participants to network and collaborate in person.

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Note: Attendance in Berlin is not required to participate. Anyone from around the world can join virtually!

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More than an event, the project is designed to build a vibrant community of developers, researchers, and innovators who will collaborate to create powerful tools that accelerate scientific discovery.

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Ready to dive into agentic biotech?

• ‍Apply to participate in the Hackathon
• ‍Apply to attend the Berlin Bio x AI Kick-off in person

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Why Biotech + AI?

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The potential impact of AI in critical biotechnology processes like drug discovery, genetic research, and personalized medicine is immense, enabling more precise, faster and cost-effective outcomes.

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At the same time, the emergence of decentralized AI has been pivotal for biotechnology, offering secure, transparent platforms for global collaboration, with open-source initiatives like AlphaFold and OpenCRISPR empowering researchers to tackle complex challenges in genomics and drug development.

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To capitalize on this movement, Bio Protocol is working with a handful of technology partners to develop a decentralized fleet of AI-powered agents designed to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in biotechnology. We call these “BioAgents.”

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BioAgents can perform tasks like analyzing scientific literature, executing complex reasoning, designing experiments, analyzing high-throughput data, and managing IP claims. This allows them to synthesize insights, contribute to a shared decentralized knowledge graph, and guide critical research steps, from crafting hypotheses to designing experiments and even shaping intellectual property.

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This hackathon is dedicated to advancing and enriching the field of AI-powered scientific agents,. Participants will create new plugins and integrations with existing scientific tools, strive to deliver concrete, meaningful scientific results, and develop BioAgents that free scientists to concentrate on discovery rather than administrative or repetitive tasks.

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We invite you to learn more about our vision to catalyze biotech research with AI in our dedicated article and on the BioAgents website.

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$125,000 in Prizes to Drive Innovation

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With a total of $125,000 in prizes, participants will be evaluated and rewarded based on their projects’ scientific impact, technical implementation, usability and accessibility, and sustainability and scalability.

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The total reward of $125,000 is divided into three main pools:

• ‍$75,000 for Scientific Outcomes: Projects that generate meaningful scientific outputs, emphasizing information organization, knowledge graph generation, and hypothesis generation.
• ‍$35,000 for CoreAgent Development: This prize is dedicated to projects that address specific challenges faced by BioDAOs. Hackers will be given scoped problem statements defined by the founders and operators of BioDAOs and asked to solve the problems.
• ‍$15,000 for Discretionary Prizes: This portion of the prize pool will be allocated at the discretion of the organization to recognize various valuable contributions.

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World-Class Judges & Mentors

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Participants will receive guidance from industry leaders, researchers, and successful entrepreneurs who have already made significant contributions to AI and biotech, including:

• ‍Barend Mons (LIFES Institute): Professor Emeritus at Leiden University and Founding Director of the Leiden Institute for FAIR and Equitable Science (LIFES). A Fellow of the International Science Council, he is a prominent figure in FAIR data, knowledge graphs, and biology.
• ‍Vince Alessi (OpenAI): Venture builder, researcher, and multi-exit founder with a focus on AI in biology and go-to-market (GTM) strategies. Recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30, he serves as an advisor and board director, bringing expertise in venture building and innovation.
• ‍Shawn Dimantha (Hydra Ventures): Co-Founder of Hydra Ventures, building and investing in the future of health/biotech, AI/ML, crypto/Web3 + more.
• ‍Dr. Mario Malički (Stanford): Associate Director of the Stanford Program on Research Rigor and Reproducibility (SPORR) and a Research Scholar at Stanford. As Editor-in-Chief of Research Integrity and Peer Review and a medical doctor, he focuses on meta-research, research integrity, and reproducibility.
• ‍Slava Tykhonov (DANS): Senior R&D Engineer at DANS-KNAW, part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. With 25 years of experience in software development, European research infrastructures, and data science, he’s an innovator and mentor in IT. He specializes in research infrastructure, AI, FAIR implementation, and knowledge graphs.
• ‍Sean Brennan (Bio Protocol): Head of AI at Bio Protocol and the founder of Chainagent, a platform focused on the on-chain infrastructure of AI agents. Passionate about agentic science, payments, authentication, and messaging, he bridges AI and blockchain innovation.
• ‍Vincent Weisser (Prime Intellect): Founder and CEO of Prime Intellect, where he’s building a platform to commoditize compute and intelligence by aggregating global resources and fostering distributed training and open-source AI. Aiming to advance scientific progress and human flourishing, he’s also a co-founder of Bio Protocol.
• ‍Heslin Kim (ZkCloud): Chief Growth Officer and a founding team member at ZkCloud. A mentor at accelerators like Harvard Blockchain, Brinc, and CV Labs, and an advisor and angel investor, she excels in AI growth strategy, blockchain, and mentorship.
• ‍Jeffrey Koury (ResearchHub): President of the ResearchHub Foundation. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, Riverside, specializing in neuroinflammation and virology. He’s passionate about decentralized science (DeSci), research coordination, and open science.
• ‍James Brodie (ID Theory): Master of Research in Systems Biology, with a focus on regulatory genetic networks and a decade of biotech experience in his role as Director of Discovery Research at NASDAQ-listed GW Pharmaceuticals. A board member of Molecule AG and a key figure in Spaceship DAO and Beaker DAO, he’s deeply engaged in systems biology, DeSci DAOs, and biotech research.

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Shape the Future of Biotechnology & Decentralized AI

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Join the Bio x AI Hackathon and help shape the next generation of biotech innovation:

• ‍Apply to participate in the Hackathon
• ‍Apply to attend the Berlin  Bio x AI Kick-off in person
• ‍Register for the Livestream of the Bio x AI Kick-off in Berlin

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For more information, join our Telegram channel to connect with fellow builders!

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