Conference: AI in Organismal Biology

In an effort to keep pace with the rapid development of AI in the biology realm, and to accelerate preparation for the launch of the National Synthesis Center for Organismal Resilience (NSCORE), there will be a three-day workshop and symposium held in fall 2026 focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in Organismal Biology. This workshop will be a showcase of how AI is changing the way scientists are studying individual traits in the wild. This platform will explore if, when, and how the underlying mechanistic and environmental bases of individual variation in traits influence variation in organismal fitness. This one-day symposium will focus on two themes. First, it will explore the way scientists are building phenotypic databases for AI problem-solving in the biological realm. Second, it will highlight how technology and industry leaders are using AI in the natural (biological) world. In addition to the one-day symposium, which will be a hybrid in-person and virtual symposium, the workshop will also serve as the official kick-off event for NSCORE to help build and galvanize the broader Computational Organismal Biology community in order to accelerate momentum and discuss all of the changes that have transpired since 2024 with a view toward the future. This project advances NSF's priorities in AI. With the increasing availability of individual genomes and transcriptomes, as well as increasingly large and complex trait databases, these new AI tools will enable researchers to link genetic and phenotypic variation at the individual level within and among populations to study plasticity and adaptation to change. This workshop will bring together scientists from academia and industry to (1) explore the way scientists are building phenotypic databases for AI problem-solving in the biological realm and (2) highlight how technology and industry leaders are using AI in the natural (biological) world. This innovative symposium will be forward-facing to think about ways that NSCORE can help bridge these communities to leverage organismal data to solve real-world problems related to organismal resilience. One of the primary goals of the one-day, hybrid in-person and virtual symposium is to begin building the NSCORE community, and more broadly the community of Computational Organismal Biology. By using a hybrid format, this symposium will be able to reach scientists and interested people all over the country. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2625174 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Dustin Rubenstein | Institution: Columbia University, NEW YORK, NY | Award Amount: $107,995 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2625174 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2625174.html