Helminthix Hackathon

A focused AI hackathon and grand challenge to generate drug x gene-target hypotheses for parasitic worm diseases.

The challenge

Helminth drug discovery has many promising ingredients: parasite genomes, comparative orthology, structural models, known anthelmintics, repurposing libraries, AI target prediction, generative chemistry and increasingly strong parasite assays. The problem is that these components are rarely joined into fast, testable discovery campaigns.

What teams will do

Participating teams will use AI and computational biology to nominate drug x gene-target hypotheses for helminths. Strong submissions should connect a parasite species or disease group, a target gene or pathway, a molecule or chemical series, predicted selectivity, resistance considerations, and an experimentally testable functional readout.

What makes a good lead?

• Biological relevance: the target should connect to parasite viability, development, motility, fecundity, persistence or transmission.
• Parasite selectivity: hypotheses should explain why the target or molecule may be safer for humans and livestock.
• Assay readiness: the idea should be testable in real parasite functional assays, not only interesting in silico.
• Access potential: the molecule, series or development route should be compatible with affordable treatment at scale.

From model output to real assays

The winning team and strongest leads will be prioritised for testing in real functional assays through partner laboratories where feasible. This is the point of the challenge: to move beyond model-ranked lists and create a route from AI-generated hypotheses to parasite viability, motility, development, fecundity or stage-specific readouts.

Who should take part?

We are interested in AI drug-discovery teams, computational biologists, parasite genomics groups, medicinal chemists, assay labs, students, funders and endemic-region researchers who want to help build a more systematic helminth discovery pipeline.

Current status

This initiative is in design. We are refining challenge rules, judging criteria, data resources, assay pathways and partner roles. If you want to help shape or support the hackathon, please contact us.