Rare Hackathon event of İBG RareBoost team transformed into a scientific publication
The RareBoost ERA Chairs Project team at Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center (İBG) has achieved a significant success in the field of rare and undiagnosed diseases, contributing both to awareness and to scientific knowledge production.
The team evaluated the outcomes of the ‘Rare Hackathon’, organized as part of the 2025 Rare Disease Day activities, from a scientific perspective and shared the findings with the international scientific community through a paper published in the Rare journal.
The article, which examined the hackathon process and its results with a scientific lens, highlighted several important findings. It revealed that the majority of students had limited prior knowledge of rare diseases. The hackathon experience helped participants gain a deeper understanding of rare disease research, diagnostic processes, and the challenges faced in the field. After the event, many students expressed their interest in pursuing careers in rare disease research, while also contributing valuable suggestions to improve the event, such as extending its duration, adding training sessions, and incorporating treatment design aspects. These results demonstrated that the hackathon format can be considered not only as a competition but also as an effective model for scientific education.
The efforts of the İBG RareBoost team offer promising developments for millions of individuals living with rare diseases, while also inspiring young scientists to engage in this vital research field.