Although Cradle is primarily a software company, we do have an in-house wet lab to validate our ML models, generate foundational datasets, and support both our users and the broader BioEngineering community by sharing insights about the methods, tools, and equipment we’ve set up in our lab. Leveraging automation enables us to produce high-throughput, high-quality data while keeping our sanity intact.

Recently, we attended the laboratory automation conference SLAS in San Diego. It turned out to be a phenomenal event - striking the perfect balance of an engaging roadshow, excellent courses, inspiring talks, fun parties (thanks Hamilton, Ganymede, and SPT Labtech!) and opportunities to reconnect with friends and former Zymergites. Below are a few of our reflections.

Liquid handlers get cheaper

About 10 years ago, OpenTrons disrupted the market by introducing an affordable liquid handler, followed by the OT-2 in 2018, the OpenTrons Flex two years ago, and they continue to release new products - like the OpenTrons stacker presented this year. The established players are paying attention and rolling out more affordable, smaller liquid handlers alongside their “premium” offerings. One compact liquid handler we really liked was the I.prep, which comes with exchangeable heads. You can swap in not just pipettors, but also tools like a pH probe or a suction cup to move lids and tubes around. We’d love to see an eventual option for users to design their own heads for the I.prep. Another concept that caught our attention was from Trilio Bio. Their liquid handler can hot-swap different heads (gripper, 1- and 8-channel pipettors, tube opener), and it’s possible to link multiple liquid handlers together via power and data connectors - very cool!

Unfortunately, some companies build single-purpose liquid handlers around proprietary (wet lab) technology. This feels wasteful in terms of CAPEX, lab space, and environmental impact. It would be better if they provided methods for various liquid handlers or shipped hardware modules. For example, Volta Labs uses a very cool air-exposed digital microfluidics technology to automate library prep for multiple next-generation sequencing methods. Unfortunately, instead of building a module you can fit onto a liquid handler deck, they opted to create a brand-new liquid handling system around it. This might be appropriate for certain scenarios (like large sequencing centers), but we’d be far more interested if we could integrate it into our existing fleet of liquid handlers. We really liked that Telesis is changing their approach: instead of building hardware around their new in-house DNA synthesis technology (SOLA), they are providing their users with scripts and methods to onboard their protocols on existing infrastructure. Of course, this approach requires rewriting the same scripts for each supported liquid handler. Clearly a lingua franca for liquid handlers is needed (more on that below).

Transportation systems

Transporting plates between machines is essential for hands-off workflows. We really like the idea behind Beckhoff’s XPlanar, which uses electromagnetic tiles that snap together to form a surface. On top of these tiles, you place “pucks” (with plate nests, for instance) that can be moved around using electrolevitation. Not only can the system move these pucks, it can also spin or tilt them - a lot of possibilities! This year, more companies showcased similar concepts. LabSync demonstrated a modular approach for building your own liquid handler. Their modules match the footprint of XPlanar tiles and include items such as an 8-channel dispenser, a 96- or 384-well head, or a suction cup for removing lids with XPlanar tiles moving plates from one module to the next.

We also noticed more autonomous mobile robots, though it seems they’re still seeking the perfect niche where they can truly excel. Most of these robots use LiDAR for navigation and then rely on a camera in the final stages, reading a small QR-like code near the pickup/drop-off point to ensure precise positioning. This “proximal positioning” approach is starting to appear in more traditional workcells too. For instance, Brooks showcased their new PreciseFlex arm with embedded IntelliGuide vision, which uses a camera to enable a similar system for final alignment. Lab Donkey showed a clever concept where the arm checks via camera if a plate was placed correctly on a hotel, and if not, reorients it - very neat!

Formulatrix impressed us with their new Stack system, which uses a similar idea to Automata’s Linq but makes even better use of vertical space. Essentially, it’s a rack with shelves that house the instruments, with a robotic arm that moves horizontally and vertically in front. This compact design still allows easy manual access to the instruments without resorting to turntables or retractable shelves (and yes, its arm also relies on QR-like codes for precise positioning).

Software

In general, most lab equipment is a marvel of hardware engineering - but the software tends to lag behind, often plagued by questionable UI design, limited functionality, poor algorithms, restricted interoperability, proprietary file formats, no APIs, etc. Another sticking point is that each workcell integrator appears to develop its own drivers for the same machines.

A pair of startups aiming to change that are Ganymede, which provides a universal FAIR data layer for all lab instruments, and UniteLabs, which is working on a platform and infrastructure for interacting with machines using Python. We hope they succeed, because that would make lab automation so much simpler: version-controlled workflows, easier sharing between instruments and labs, and seamless transit of data from device to database. 

Automata showed off new software for their workflow orchestrator. It includes a graphical UI where you can connect modular blocks to design workflows, as well as a Python interface (right now they’re separate, but the plan is to unite them soon). We hope to see Automata and other leading integrators release their software as a standalone product in order to help labs get more out of integrated workcells of any physical configuration. We’re excited by the prospect of pairing Automata’s workflow orchestrator with UniteLabs’ Pythonic machine control - it looks like a promising path to the lab of the future! 

Come visit our automated lab!

Overall, the SLAS conference highlighted some notable developments in lab automation, from more affordable liquid handlers to smarter robotic workflows and promising software solutions. The industry’s push toward greater flexibility, interoperability, and user-friendly automation feels like a step in the right direction. We left feeling inspired to explore these tools further in our own lab. If you happen to be in Amsterdam, we’d be happy to show you our automation setups and swap ideas - just drop us a note!

Our automation workcell (designed and built by Lab Services) helps us generate data to validate and train our models.