Tuesday, April 1 – Wednesday, April 2, 2025

The Bio-IT World Hackathon is a cornerstone of the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, bringing together data scientists, developers, and life science professionals to tackle real-world data challenges. Focused on Open Source and FAIR Data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles, this two-day event fosters innovation and collaboration to deliver practical solutions.

Project Highlights from our Last Hackathon:

1. Gene Trends (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard) – Developed Python workflows and interactive tools to track gene popularity over time, enabling trend analysis and prioritization for biomedical research.
2. Integrating SRA Search Indexes into Workflows (NIH/NCBI) – Enhanced genomic data analysis by integrating NIH’s Sequence Read Archive (SRA) with cloud-based workflows, enabling large-scale biological discovery.
3. MYC Amplification in Congenital Heart Disease and Cancer (NIH) – Created workflows and notebooks to analyze MYC gene expression in pediatric diseases, demonstrating reproducible approaches to studying shared genetic pathways.
4. Knowledge Graphs for Disease Subtyping and Drug Efficacy (DNAnexus) – Built knowledge graphs to model disease subtypes and drug responses, supporting personalized treatment strategies and validating data-driven insights.
5. kidSIDES (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals) – Developed the largest open pediatric drug safety database with 500K signals, enabling analysis of adverse drug effects and hypothesis generation for pediatric safety studies.

These projects showcase the breadth of possibilities for 2025 submissions, from data visualization and workflow integration to disease modeling and drug safety analysis, highlighting the power of collaboration to drive life sciences innovation.

What to Expect in 2025:

The 2025 hackathon will continue to unite life science and IT professionals to address pressing data challenges using Open Source and FAIR Data approaches. Facilitated by leaders from the NIH Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE), this year’s event will emphasize projects leveraging omics data and integrating CFDE tools, improving interoperability across datasets to accelerate discoveries.

The CFDE ensures Common Fund data is accessible and reusable, providing researchers with a centralized online platform for integrating multiple resources seamlessly—enabling new insights and scalable solutions.

Why Participate?

• Solve Real-World Challenges – Address critical data problems using Open Source and FAIR Data principles.
• Collaborate with Experts – Partner with peers to develop workflows, datasets, and tools that advance biomedical discovery.
• Gain Hands-On Experience – Work with cutting-edge technologies in bioinformatics, AI, and cloud-based data analysis.

How to Get Involved:

Companies A-F
Rod Eymael, Mgr., Business Development
(781) 247-6286
reymael@healthtech.com

Companies G-Z
Aimee Croke, Business Development Manager
(781) 292-0777
acroke@cambridgeinnovationinstitute.com