AI for Computational Biology: Highlights from the first BioAI Hackathon at University of Warsaw

The BioAI Hackathon at the Centre of New Technologies at the University of Warsaw convened 43 international researchers to collaboratively explore artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for solving complex challenges in computational biology. Nine interdisciplinary and multi-institutional teams addressed the following problems: disease-gene prioritization, microbiome analysis, drug-protein interactions, alternative splicing prediction, chromatin architecture study and toxicological profiling. Using cutting-edge tools such as graph neural networks (GNNs), large language models (LLMs), and multi-omics integration frameworks, participants developed scalable and reproducible analytical pipelines. The results include: a disease gene prioritization framework using GNNs, a microbiome dynamics analysis for poultry health prediction and the construction of chromatin structure-aware regulatory networks. All projects follow the open science principles and display translational potential. This hackathon underscores the transformative role of AI in biomedicine and the value of collaborative, time-bounded innovation for accelerating discovery in life sciences. All projects are publicly available on GitHub: https://github.com/SFGLab