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
Closed
Deadline was June 30, 2026
Applications Closed View Projects → View Schedule 2025 Archive
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.

Projects, 2026

11 starting points.
Not 11 plans.

Each of these is a one-slide pitch from the organizing team — enough to form a balanced team around, and no more. The teams that take them on develop them into real project charters by August 28, 2026.

  1. 01 Evidence-Grounded Pathogen Knowledge Extraction
  2. 02 AMR-Evidence Extraction, Integration, and Interoperability
  3. 03 AI-Driven Metadata Curation and Harmonization
  4. 04 Sample Metadata That Survives Analysis in Galaxy
  5. 05 Interview-Driven Workflow Construction and Repair in Galaxy
  6. 06 BV-BRC Copilot: Agentic Workflow Automation
  7. 07 Federated NIAID–BRC Data Ecosystem Assistant
  8. 08 Sewage-to-Signal: Early Warning for Immune-Escape Mutations
  9. 09 Structure-to-Function: Hypothetical Protein and Binding-Evidence Factory
  10. 10 Hypothesis2Omics: Agentic Multi-Omics Validation
  11. 11 OneHealth Conserved Target Prioritizer
All project proposals →
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
Applications closed

Three days at Argonne.
Free to attend.

Applications closed on June 30, 2026 and we are no longer accepting submissions. Participants have been selected and the proposed projects are now published — teams are being finalized ahead of the event.

View Projects → View Full Schedule
Applications
Closed

Deadline passed June 30, 2026. Selected participants have been notified by email.