Thank you for your interest in our codeathon. Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled.

Comparative genomics is a fast-growing field focused on genetic similarities and differences between species to better understand biology and human disease. Comparing genomes helps scientists discover the mechanisms behind health-related phenomena, such as slowing of the aging process, effective wound healing, robust immune responsiveness, and disease resistance.  As technology improves and more data becomes available, studying both closely and distantly related species can help further our understanding of biological processes to advance human health.

To address a growing need for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and an exploration of the data produced and available for this research, the NCBI has been developing the NIH Comparative Genomics Resource (CGR).  CGR facilitates reliable comparative genomics analyses for all eukaryotic organisms through community collaboration and a National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) genomics toolkit. The toolkit includes high-quality data, tools, and interfaces for connecting community-provided resources with NCBI. We are now pleased to announce that we are hosting a virtual codeathon which will take place on September 8-12, 2025.

Codeathons bring experts together to quickly develop innovative solutions, such as deployable pipelines, bioinformatics services, and educational resources that support scientific research and train the next generation in real-world data analysis.

This codeathon will be held virtually and will be a collaborative, not competitive, event where teams will share ideas and technical skills. We seek to bring together researchers with expertise in the life and/or translational sciences, as well as people with bioinformatics or data science skills. Programmers and non-programming subject matter experts are encouraged to apply for this event. It’s a great opportunity to network, build new collaborations, and explore career opportunities in an interactive setting.

During this week-long virtual codeathon (core working hours: 11 AM – 5 PM ET), teams of 5-8 people will work together to create innovative solutions. Here are some examples of projects that fit within the event’s scope:

• Multi-organism Gene Expression Comparison Analysis for Elucidating Novel Biosystems and Pathways
• Pangenome Visualization to Explore Genomic Variation Patterns in Lymphoma & Leukemia Progression
• Pipeline for Rapid Assessment of Genome Assembly Quality
• Mapping Variants onto 3D Macromolecules to Improve Structure-based Targeted Chemotherapies
• An Interactive Jupyter Notebook to Teach Whole Genome Alignment Analysis for Discovery of Structural Variants associated with Human Disease

Projects in this codeathon will use NCBI data and tools, including GenBank and RefSeq nucleotide and protein sequences, along with resources specifically developed for and enhanced by the NIH CGR project for data access, analysis, and visualization, such as NCBI Datasets, BLAST, genome analysis pipelines (FCS and EGAPx), CDD, sequence viewers (GDV, CGV/MCGV), and the sequence/structure viewer (iCn3D).

At the end of the event, teams will present their work to each other and representatives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). All project outcomes will be made publicly available on the NCBI Codeathons GitHub site. Participants are encouraged to continue developing their projects, co-author research papers, and share their work online and at conferences.

Please note:

• Due to the active, hands-on, team-based nature of this event, you will be expected to join us and participate with your team from 11 AM to 5 PM ET each day.
• Your application must be submitted by midnight ET on July 6, 2025.  Selected projects/team leads and applicants will be notified by mid-July and early August, respectively.
• We encourage project submissions from team leads that leverage NCBI resources, as priority will be given to projects that explicitly include NCBI data and tools. Please note that if your project is not selected for this codeathon, you will still be considered for participation as a team member.
• Participation will be capped to fill teams based on the type and total number of accepted projects.

Questions?

If you have questions about this codeathon, please email us at codeathons@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.