All articles tagged with #lab automation
Two AI-agent systems described in Nature—Google DeepMind's Co-Scientist and FutureHouse's Robin—use teams of AI to generate hypotheses, pick experiments, and analyze data to speed up early drug-discovery work. In initial tests they proposed plausible repurposing candidates for AML and dry AMD, with humans carrying out the experiments and validating results; while promising, most candidates require further validation in broader use.
A collaboration between OpenAI and Ginkgo Bioworks used a GPT-5–driven autonomous lab to optimize cell-free protein synthesis, achieving a 40% further cost reduction beyond a human-led record and testing more than 30,000 conditions in six months. While the approach shows promise, current robots still lack dexterity for bespoke or tissue-related experiments, meaning human biologists’ expertise remains essential for future breakthroughs.
BacterAI, an integrated lab automation and machine learning platform, could help overcome the challenges of culturing understudied microorganisms by learning appropriate culture conditions as a game. Currently, fewer than 2% of all microbial species are culturable due to a lack of knowledge about growth requirements and the tedious, labour-intensive experiments that stand in the way of this essential knowledge. BacterAI could be the future of studying microbial diversity and discovering novel bioactive molecules such as antibiotics.