For all of you science guys and gals out there, mark your calendars. HATCH is back. And this year, it’s an in-person event.

HudsonAlpha’s 5th annual team-based tech challenge, in collaboration with Urban Engine brings together students and professionals alike over one jam-packed science and technology-filled weekend. What’s more, teams can hack genomics while competing for up to $5,000 in prize money.

HATCH2022 participants will the opportunity to take on challenges, relying on their collective team skills, utilizing resources such as business strategy, web development, and technology.

The first weekend of March 2020 was the last time a HATCH event was presented in-person, exactly one week prior to the pandemic shutting down the world around us. As a result, HATCH2021 adeptly shifted gears by hosting the event virtually, drawing in nearly 70 participants from all over the world.

Although highly successful as a virtual event, this years’ live face-to-face experience promises to bring with it an even greater level of team camaraderie and relationship building.

“Two years ago, we had it in person, and then last year, we had to shift it to a virtual format,” said Alex Cate, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. “This year, we just felt that this event is so much better in person, like many other events are, but this one specifically, I think is so much better because we can really provide hands-on mentoring when it comes to the challenges.”

HATCH2022 will take place over the weekend of May 6-8th on the HudsonAlpha campus in the Paul Propst Center at 800 Hudson Way. There will be there will be three exciting new challenges for participants to sink their teeth into.

“We’ve got some challenges this year that are on the agriculture side of things,” said Cate. “A lot of people think of HudsonAlpha as of genetics and genomics in human health, but we do a lot of genetics and genomics in agriculture, as well. We wanted to round out kind of the things that HudsonAlpha does from a research standpoint and reflect that in the Hackathon.”

Did you know that there are over 1000 types of fruit and nut trees? Cataloguing such an expansive collection poses a unique task. The “Quest for the Ultimate Trail Mix” challenge employs database management skills, as well as UI/UX and API integration to build a web app that provides scientifically relevant data presentation, coupled with effective design.

Electronic Health/Medical Records (EHR/EMR) are used to keep track patients’ medications, lab results and office visits. However, individual EHR/EMRs are limited due to the lack of interface between systems. Fortunately, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) are health data standards that are presently being implemented. The challenge behind “Burn FHIR, Burn” is to create a Smart-on-FHIR app that presents genomic test data back to a provider within the EHR/EMR system.

challenge 2 Pharmacogenomics is one of the fastest growing areas in genomic testing. It relies on the use of DNA signatures, along with large population studies to forecast how an individual’s genomic data can provide the key to how a patient will process and react to a particular medication.

Despite plenty of solid data, the process is not always straightforward cause. There are also multiple resources designed to inform interpretation, such as the FDA, CPIK, and PharmGKB. In the “More than Pharm to Table” challenge, participants are asked to develop a custom web-based application to interpret pharmacogenomic data by extracting resources from multiple databases, thus creating custom interpretation fields, and generating specific API and PDF endpoints.

To prepare participants for the upcoming HATCH2020 challenges, Urban Engine will host HATCH-specific workshops as part of their weekly Coworking Nights. The first workshop will take place Wednesday, April 20th at InnovateHSV downtown, located at 228 Holmes Avenue NE.

Participants without a team of their own can be matched up with other, like-minded souls at the HATCH2022 kickoff event on Friday evening, May 6th.

To learn more about HATCH 2022, go to: hudsonalpha.org/techchallenge. Check out Coworking Night event info on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coworkingnight.org/

Images provided by HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.