$1M+ in Claude credits
Sponsored by Anthropic, with additional compute provided by Modal
From September 28 to November 1, a new challenge is released every Monday.
For teams with significant protein design experience.
Up to $50,000
in Claude credits for academic teams
SEPTEMBER — DECEMBER 2026
SEP 16–24
Applications for Claude support are open.
BEFORE SEP 28
Anthropic notifies selected support recipients.
SEP 28 – NOV 1
Five consecutive design and submission windows.
You can enter the open track with any design method. Using Claude for competition-related work is a condition of receiving Anthropic support in Tracks 1 and 2.
Each challenge opens on a Monday and closes at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (AoE, UTC−12) on its last day. Challenge 1: Sep 28 – Oct 6. Challenge 2: Oct 5 – 11. Challenge 3: Oct 12 – 18. Challenge 4: Oct 19 – 25. Challenge 5: Oct 26 – Nov 1. Submissions for a challenge close when its window ends.
No. Anthropic and Adaptyv will select designs for wet-lab testing using a Claude-based workflow. The exact workflow will be made public after the competition. Selection will not rely on a single in silico metric. All designs must be reviewed by the submitting researcher before submission. We encourage participants to submit the designs they think will fare best experimentally and to describe their methods and design choices in detail. Teams selected for Track 1 have a reserved testing allocation of up to approximately 15 designs per challenge. Tracks 2 and 3 have no guaranteed allocation.
With contributions from:
$1M+ in wet lab validation
Sponsored by Anthropic & Adaptyv, with DNA provided by Twist
5,000+ proteins
Synthesized and characterized in Adaptyv's automated lab
Design a conditional TNF-α binder.
Oct 5 – 11
Oct 12 – 18
Oct 19 – 25
Oct 26 – Nov 1
Targets and requirements are published when each problem opens.
September 28 — November 1
Applications close September 24
For labs and companies with significant protein design expertise and experts in at least one competition problem area. Apply as a team using an institutional or company email. An authorized institutional support letter may be required. Selected teams are pre-allocated lab testing for up to approximately 15 designs per challenge. Designs must meet the competition requirements.
For affiliated individuals or teams of up to three.
Claude Max 20x
complimentary access during the competition
Applications close September 24
For individual researchers and teams of up to three who are actively affiliated with an institution or company. Apply with your institutional or company email. Anthropic selects support recipients; applying does not guarantee support. There is no guaranteed testing allocation.
For participants outside Tracks 1 and 2.
Self-supported
use your own tools and compute
Competition starts September 28
Adaptyv’s open track welcomes eligible participants who are not in Track 1 or Track 2. Claude use is optional and Anthropic credits or subscriptions are not included. Designs are considered for testing through the jointly agreed selection process, without a guaranteed allocation.
BY NOV 30
Selected designs are made and experimentally tested.
DEC 15
Experimental data is published on Proteinbase.
Planned schedule, subject to change. Each challenge closes at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (AoE) on its last day.
Participants retain ownership of their designs. For tested designs, results are published openly on Proteinbase, including sequences, predicted structures, design methods, and experimental measurements. Negative results are published too, so the whole community can learn from the experiments.
The competition won’t have a cash prize, but there will be special non-cash prizes. We’ll announce the details soon.
