The 2025 BioHackathon: Your First Step Into the World of BioEntrepreneurship
Last month, 439 participants forming 53 diverse and dynamic teams, successfully completed the 2025 BioHackathon! The event spanned across three days, March 21st - 23rd, and was packed with keynote sessions and workshops, leading up to the Grand Finale pitch presentation and judging session. This year, BioHackathon participants came from evenly represented regions across the Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asia-Pacific (Figure 1.1). They also had diverse backgrounds, ranging from academia, industry, consulting and venture capital firms (Figure 1.2).
Figure 1.1| Pie chart of the distribution of participants by region.
Figure 1.2| Pie chart of the distribution of participants by current occupation. The majority were current bachelor’s degree students.
The BioHackathon kicked off with a keynote session from Professor George Church, a renowned genetics pioneer and serial entrepreneur with many innovative biotech startups. Professor Church delivered a thought-provoking talk on how the synthetic biology industry has progressed over the years as well as the major innovations that have come out of the field.
The discussion was followed with a workshop on team dynamics by Alejandra Borda, 5050 Instigator at Fifty Years. Alejandra shared insights on DO’s and DON’Ts all co-founders should be aware of, setting up our participants for success in the team-formation stage of the BioHackathon.
Day One’s events concluded with a panel discussion featuring iGEM Startups alumni, Niek Savelkoul (co-founder of Scope Biosciences) and Stephanie Michelsen (Founder of Jellatech), both of whom provided a behind-the-scenes look at launching a synthetic biology startup. This was followed by a speed-networking session, where representatives from five different SynBio organizations shared insights on the biotech industry.
Figure 2| Panel discussion with Professor George Church during the 2025 BioHackathon
On the second day of the BioHackathon, participants attended a keynote session from Dr. Lakmal Jayasinghe, Chief Scientific Office of Oxford Nanopore Technologies. His presentation provided an in-depth analysis of the company’s twenty-year journey towards revolutionizing DNA sequencing technology.
Subsequently, the day featured workshops on ideation and pitching by iGEMer, Ian Schlander (Senior Investor Relations at Vama). He shared valuable guidance and strategies, and supported participants during the last hours of their pitch creation to refine their project concepts and presentation skills.
“The best part of the event for me were the lectures held on Friday and Saturday. They were incredibly inspiring and informative, offering valuable insights into current trends and applications in synthetic biology and bioinformatics. Hearing directly from experts in the field helped me better understand the broader context of our work and sparked a lot of new ideas.”
- 2025 BioHackathon participant.
Highlights from the 2025 BioHackathon
This year, the 53 teams competing in the BioHackathon ranged across sectors, proposing innovative solutions for a variety of diverse global and local challenges (Figure 3).
Figure 3| Distribution of 2025 BioHackathon teams, by sector.
The live finale took place on the third day, when participants showcased their pitches to a panel of judges. We offer immense congratulations to our winners!
Grand Prize Winner: LiqSenS developed a real-time NT-proBNP biomarker monitoring system for heart failure management.
First Runner-Up: HistaSense from the University of Oregon created a miniature biosensor for detecting histamine in saliva.
Community Impact Award: Fihankra Barriers designed bioconcrete pentacone coastal defense structures.
Most Innovative Idea: TUDarmstadt's AREStro developed an anoxic bioreactor to decompose Martian water perchlorates for astronaut water supply.
Best Presentation: Cell Whisperer engineered cells to produce reprogramming factors via extracellular vesicles, reducing cell therapy manufacturing costs.
Judge’s Choice Award: NeuraNova focused on targeted CNS delivery of mRNA/siRNA for neuroregeneration in stroke and injury patients, and Detonate developed a system enhancing mRNA vaccines with personalized dosing based on nitric oxide sensing.
Many thanks to the panel of judges: Alejandra Borda, Johannes Sonnenschein, Esther Kim, Devika Thapar, Marcel Wittmund and Florian Kroh, for their incredible feedback!
The BioHackathon offers an unprecedented opportunity to connect with potential co-founders and launch the project that has been lurking in the back of your mind. The event, organized by iGEM Startups, fosters a welcoming and interdisciplinary environment, making it an ideal place to explore the synthetic biology startup ecosystem and kickstart your journey as a biofounder. A big thank you goes out to everyone who made this event possible, including all the judges, panel speakers and the entire iGEM Startups team!
Figure 4.1| BioHackathon impact tree chart summarising participants’ key takeaways from this year’s event.
Figure 4.2| Pie chart of participants' answers, showing roughly 79% of participants will continue with their project by signing up for the Venture Creation Lab!
For those interested in pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities in synthetic biology, the iGEM Startups Venture Foundry program serves as a natural next step and it is open to all, regardless of prior BioHackathon participation status. Our 2025 Venture Creation Lab, a four-week program, will take place April 21st through May 16th, 2025. There, aspiring entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to learn the basics of bioentrepreneurship, understand market entry requirements and meet like-minded individuals.
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