The Illinois BioGENEius Challenge is conducted by the Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization (iBIO), a life sciences industry association that represents the nearly 88,000 life sciences employees at member companies, universities, service providers and venture firms.

An original independent science research competition, the BioGENEius Challenge is the most prestigious high school science competition in the world for original research in biotechnology.

iBIO will be hosting the 2025 Illinois BioGENEius Competition on April 17th from 9 am – 1pm at Portal Innovations, 400 N Aberdeen St, 16th floor, Chicago, IL 60642.

Judging will require student’s attendance at Portal Innovations on April 17th. 

Application deadline: 10 PM March 27, 2025

Apply Here

Contest Guidelines

Scientific Poster Guidelines

Contest Permission Slip & Photo Release Form

Judging Criteria

2025 IL BioGENEius Challenge Online Application

The Illinois BioGENEius Challenge is not your typical science fair. As evidence of the exceptional projects of these high school students, watch last year’s winner, Sirihaasa Nallamothu, as she describes how she taught herself to create image classifiers to diagnose eye diseases and how the experience propelled her to pursue more research.

For information contact Ann Vogel