2025 HIGHLIGHTS
The 2025 Harvard Rare Disease Hackathon marked a year of immense growth, bringing together 192 participants from 47 universities across the U.S. and Canada. Held at Harvard’s Science & Engineering Complex in Cambridge, MA from March 1–2, 2025, the hackathon fostered a dynamic and collaborative environment dedicated to advancing innovation in rare disease research.
The hackathon featured intriguing keynote talks by Dr. Timothy Yu and Dr. Monica Wojcik in addition to lightning talks from our partners at 14 different rare disease organizations. Furthermore, this year’s hackathon featured 65 projects developed over 36 hours, addressing a range of challenges from EEG-based seizure monitors to AI-powered diagnostic and clinical trial recruitment tools. Projects were judged on relevance, impact, novelty, feasibility, scalability, and presentation, with winning teams in Genomic Diagnostics, Therapeutic Targets, and Symptom Management tracks each receiving a $2,000 prize.
The 2025 Harvard Rare Disease Hackathon reaffirmed the power of interdisciplinary collaboration in driving innovation for rare disease care—and we look forward to continuing this impact in future years.
HACKATHON PROJECTS
PROGRAMMING
192 STUDENTS
47 UNIVERSITIES
This year, we welcomed nearly 200 undergraduate and graduate students from universities across the U.S. and Canada—including BU, Berea, Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Clark, Colby, Columbia, Florida International University, George Washington University, Harvard, Illinois Wesleyan, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins, Kean, McGill, McMaster, MIT, Michigan State, NYU, Northeastern, Rutgers, SDSU, Simmons, Stanford, Stony Brook, Texas A&M, Tufts, University of California, UChicago, University of Florida, University of Houston, UMass, UMich, University of New Brunswick, UPenn, University of Washington, WashU, and more.
12 JUDGES
20 MENTORS
Our judging and mentorship panels brought together leaders from academia, biotech, clinical research, data science, and the rare disease community—representing institutions such as Harvard, the Broad Institute, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, 23andMe, NORD®, Korro Bio, and more.
14 RARE DISEASE ORGANIZATIONS
54 NORD® SCHOLARS
This year, we were thrilled to partner with the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD®) to launch a merit- and need-based scholarship program aimed at empowering the next generation of rare disease innovators. By covering travel and event-related expenses, the scholarship made it possible for passionate students from all backgrounds to participate fully—regardless of financial or geographic barriers. Thanks to this initiative, 54 students from 18 universities received over $9,000 in funding, helping to bring diverse perspectives and bold ideas to the fight against rare diseases.
2025 NORD® Scholars with Dr. Edward Neilan (NORD® Chief Medical & Scientific Officer) and Darby Gavin (NORD® Community Engagement Manager)
NOTABLE PROJECTS
Click on each project’s image to visit its dedicated page and learn more.
Deep Learning For Detecting Genetic Interactions Within Rare Diseases
Genomic Diagnostics Winners:
David An, Shivam Gandhi, Eren Shin, Xichen Zhang
Accelerating Pre-IND by Mapping Diseases to Therapeutic Candidates
Genomic Diagnostics Honorable Mentions:
Alisa Zhang, Edward Sun, Mark Endicott, Yufei Chen, Yuxin Zeng
Seizure-Tracking Beanie for Epilepsy Patients
Symptom Management Winners:
Caroline Scheifer, Nureldin Mohamed, Antonino Libarnes, Mirada Makhmutova, Holly Akati
A Comprehensive Web Application for Rare Disease Management
Symptom Management Honorable Mentions:
Nicolas Cevallos, Gabriella Arguello
Enhancing the Rare Disease Genetic Registry for Precision Medicine
Therapeutic Targets Winners:
TingTing Yan, Rishabh Ghosh, Jan Tobias Boehnke
AI-Driven Clinical Trial Recruitment and Rare Disease Matching
Therapeutic Targets Honorable Mentions:
Suchi Patel, Alvin Wang, David Oleksy
