2026 Virtual Cell Challenge Launched with $100,000 Grand Prize for Zero-Shot Perturbation Prediction
The 2026 Virtual Cell Challenge has officially launched, inviting participants to develop models capable of predicting cellular responses to perturbations in previously unseen cell contexts. This year's challenge is 'zero-shot,' meaning no training set is provided, and models must infer how perturbation effects transfer and change between cell types using only the unperturbed state of those cells and a list of genes to knock down. The grand prize for the winning team is $100,000, with additional prizes of $50,000 and $25,000 for second and third place, comprising a mix of cash and NVIDIA Brev credits. The challenge is sponsored by NVIDIA, 10x Genomics, and Ultima Genomics. Validation data is now live, the leaderboard is active, and submissions are open, with final submissions due on November 5. This initiative aims to build a community of machine learning researchers, computational biologists, and experimental researchers to advance the field of in silico cell biology. 
