NIAID · BRCs AI Codeathon 2.0
Sept 16 — 18, 2026 · Argonne National Lab

NIAID-BRCs AI Codeathon 2.0

Accelerating FAIR data and tools for infectious disease research.

Dates
September 16-18, 2026
3 days · in person · Wed → Fri
Venue
Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL
Bldg 240 · Room 1416
Applications close
June 30, 2026
About the event

The NIAID Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) invite researchers, data scientists, developers, bioinformaticians, and students to a three-day in-person codeathon focused on advancing infectious disease research through AI, large language models, and agentic frameworks.

Building on the success of the previous codeathon, participants will collaborate in small teams to develop prototype tools and workflows that improve the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability of BRC data, resources, and analysis tools.

Hosted by

Three centers.
One codeathon.

  1. 01
    BV-BRC

    Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center

    bv-brc.org →

    Integrated access to curated pathogen data and analysis tools.

  2. 02
    BRC Analytics

    Comprehensive analysis tools and workflows

    brc-analytics.org →

    A unified analytics layer for data exploration across BRC resources.

  3. 03
    Pathogen Data Network

    Interoperability across infectious disease resources

    pathogendatanetwork.org →

    Coordinated access and shared standards across infectious disease data.

Focus Areas, 2026

Two directions.
One common goal.

  1. 01
    RAG · LLM

    Automated knowledge extraction & curation from literature

    AI-driven systems that automatically extract, structure, and integrate biological and epidemiological knowledge from the scientific literature using Retrieval-Augmented Generation and large language models — linked back to BRC schemas with provenance.

  2. 02
    MCP · Agentic AI

    Bioinformatics workflow automation

    Agent-based systems that translate research questions into executable bioinformatics workflows by leveraging Model Context Protocol (MCP)-enabled tools and services — adaptive, multi-step, and reproducible.

Goals

What we hope to accomplish.

  • Apply AI and LLMs to enable scalable knowledge extraction from scientific literature
  • Develop intelligent systems for automated workflow design & execution
  • Enhance interoperability and reuse of BRC data, tools, and services
  • Foster collaboration across infectious disease, AI, and bioinformatics communities
  • Deliver openly available prototypes that seed long-term community solutions
Who should apply

Bring your expertise and perspective.

  • Infectious disease researchers and domain experts
  • Data scientists and AI/ML researchers
  • Bioinformaticians and computational biologists
  • Software developers and research engineers
  • Students, postdocs, and trainees
Apply

Three days at Argonne.
Free to attend.

Participation is free, but space is limited. Travel and lodging support may be available for a limited number of participants. Additional details on project themes and logistics will be announced soon.

Application Deadline
June 30, 2026

Notifications shortly after. Confirmed teams begin bi-weekly preparatory calls.