Manipal - Government of Karnataka Bioincubator supported by Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) and BIRAC, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), in association with Manipal School of Life Sciences, (MAHE), Manipal, jointly conducted a five-day virtual all-India Hackathon, MANIPAL BIOTECH HACKATHON 2021, from 16^th to 21^st July 2021.

The Hackathon was conducted with the vision to promote student innovations, encouraging critical thinking essential to address the most critical needs of the society and to promote novel technology development and startup creation. This Hackathon was open to students currently enrolled in any academic/research institutions doing undergraduate/post-graduate/Doctoral studies. Besides providing challenging problems, participants were also allowed to choose any existing problem of the society to solve through the hackathon. The Hackathon was conducted through virtual mode along with a series of information for entrepreneurs named Euphoria 2.0. In addition, individualized mentoring was also provided by the organizers.

A total of 55 teams participated from different institutes across India, explore various unsolved problems of the society and 48 teams presented before the jury on 23^rd July, 2021. In his remark, Lt. Gen. (Dr.) M. D. Venkatesh, Vice Chancellor MAHE, urged the young minds to identify and solve the societal needs through biotechnological solutions.  He also lauded the Bioincubator for undertaking this exercise to promote entrepreneurships.   The results were announced by Lt. Gen. (Dr.) M. D. Venkatesh, during the Award Ceremony in presence of Dr. K Satyamoorthy, Director Manipal School of Life Sciences and Dr. Manesh Thomas, CEO, M-GoK Bioincubator.

A team of Ms Anjali Warrier, Ms Apoorva Jnana and Ms Chandini Sachdeva of Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal won the first price for their concept of Bioluminescence based non-invasive monitoring of diabetes. Ms Veena Lohiya, Ms Babhitha Balaji and Mr. Dickson Paschal from Jain Deemed University won the second prize for their concept of a rapid diagnostic kit for the detection of coffee diseases. Third Prize was won by two teams working on the aptamer Based Biosensor for the detection of food toxicant from MAHE Manipal and from Basaveshwar Engineering College (A), Bagalkot for their innovative concept of environmental recycling.

The hosts, Manipal – Government of Karnataka Bioincubator along with MAHE, Manipal will provide further assistance and hand holding of top 10 innovative teams of this biohackathon.