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, 2026
9:00 AM–9:00 PM Pacific · Berkeley, CA
About 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
Harshel Bahl, Co-founder of Delightful AI
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
Will Fondrie, Head of Data Science and Engineering at Talus Bio
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, Living Models and Genomic Intelligence, 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.