Berkeley, California

Transforming Care for Rare Diseases Through AI

Let’s make a difference for those living with rare diseases! Join our event to explore innovative solutions, team up with experts, and make a meaningful difference for millions. Your participation brings hope to those who need it most.

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Event Recap

What’s waiting for you:

10:00 AM - 10:30 AM P

Event Opening

Learn about the impact of gen AI in healthcare.

10:30 AM - 5:30 PM PT:

Hackathon 

Team up with mentors, experts, and students at UC Berkeley to explore solutions for rare disease patients.

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM PT:

Presentation & Panel Discussions

  • Explore the potentials of gen AI in rare disease care.
  • Hear from industry, academic, and patient advocacy leaders.
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM PT:

Networking & Awards

Exchange ideas and perspectives with attendees, opening doors to future collaborations.

Saturday, April 19th

10:00 AM - 7:30 PM PT

Berkeley, California

Expert Panel

What’s waiting for you:

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JC Muyl

JC is a digital health executive with 30+ years of experience launching and scaling tech-enabled health startups. His work in rare disease includes co-founding MyRareData.com and Mental Health for Rare and serving on the board of Ben’s Friends. He focuses on leveraging digital health and AI to improve lives and create sustainable, patient-centered models.

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Daniel Fletcher

Daniel Fletcher is Vice Chair for Bioengineering and the Purnendu Chatterjee Chair in Engineering Biological Systems and a professor of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley. His research interests include optical and force microscopy, microfabrication, mechanical properties of cells. He is also the director for UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing economies.

 
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Sadaf Ashtari

Sadaf Ashtari is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics at Sacramento State University, as well as a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Her research focuses on healthcare IT, patient experience, and the role of online peer support groups for individuals with rare diseases.
 
 
 
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Natalia Vassilieva

Natalia is VP and Field CTO, ML at Cerebras Systems. She has decades of R&D experience in NLP, CV, ML and IR. Prior to Cerebras, Natalia was a Sr. Research Manager at Hewlett Packard Labs, where she led the Software and AI group in 2015-2019 and served as the head of HP Labs Russia in 2011-2015.

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Laurel Crosby HS

Laurel Crosby

Dr. Laurel Crosby, PhD, is the Director of Innovation at the Stanford Genome Technology Center. For over 25 years, her research has focused on developing technologies to improve diagnostic accuracyin healthcare, with a particular emphasis on idiopathic fatigue-related disorders and rare diseases that appear in adulthood.

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David Apple

David Apple is the founder of Shark Tooth, a biotech dedicated to developing treatments for Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Type 1A (CMT1A), a rare genetic disease affecting 1.6M people, including his 4-year-old son. David is a 3x founder and was an early team member at prominent companies such as Notion and Typeform. David holds an MBA from Imperial College London and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.

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Hackathon Mentors

Meet with our brilliant domain experts across many disciplines

Sharada Kalanidhi

Sharada Kalanidhi

Director of Data Science, Biochemistry, Stanford Genome Center

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Hanieh Khaleghian

HCI PhD Researcher| XR Product Designer| Tech Artist

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Aisha Sheikh

Aisha Sheikh

Product and UX Designer, Lead Designer at Github

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Giuliano Manno

Director of Design Systems / Experience Platform, Rakuten

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Babak Rasolzadeh

AIML @ Apple | Product Leader | Startup Advisor | PhD in Computer Vision and Robotics

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Claudia Iriondo

Principal Machine Learning Scientist @ Genentech, Bioengineering PhD from UC Berkeley

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Mohsen Hejrati

AI/ML Engineer at Apple. Previously Senior Director of AI at Genentech. Co-Founder at March.

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Karthik Viswanathan

AI Solutions Lead at Cerebras Systems, expertise in Generative AI model development and deployment

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Mahdi Abbaspour

Senior ML Engineer Apple AI/ML, Co-Founder at March

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Sadaf Ashtari

Associate Professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics at California State University-Sacramento

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Zahra Hejrati

PhD in Management Science and Engineering with focus on entrepreneurship at Stanford University

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Yahya Tabesh

Yahya Tabesh

Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Sharif University of Technology. Visiting Professor Stanford University. Senior Fellow University of California, Berkeley.

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Event Highlights

What’s waiting for you:

collaborative

Collaborate with experts

Team up with the change makers in the community.
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Engage in workshops

Join our brainstorming sessions to spark innovative solutions.
multidirectional

Connect with policymakers

Network with industry leaders to shape real-world changes.

We look forward to seeing you there! Grab your spot now!

Saturday, April 19th

10:00 AM - 7:30 PM PT

Berkeley, California

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Hosts

Special thanks to our sponsors at Berkeley AMENA Center who made this event possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can attend the Hackathon?

This event welcomes everyone passionate about health and innovation.  Whether you're a patient, caregiver, healthcare professional, researcher, technologist, developer, advocate, or policymaker.

What is the goal of the Hackathon?

The Hackathon is all about teamwork and innovation. Our main goal is to create solutions that improve the lives of those living with rare conditions.

How long is the Hackathon?

It’s a one-day event packed with collaboration, ideation, and impactful innovation.

Do I need to have a technical background to participate?

Not at all! Participants from all backgrounds are welcome. We believe that the best solutions come from bringing people with diverse perspectives. 

How can I register for the event?

You can register online through our event page. Simply fill out the registration form to secure your spot.