AI-run 'self-driving' lab designs and carries out DNA experiments

AI-run 'self-driving' lab designs and carries out DNA experiments

AI-run 'self-driving' lab designs and carries out DNA experiments

Researchers in China have built an AI-native laboratory that can design and carry out DNA experiments with very little human help, according to a report in Nature. The system, called AutoDNA, uses a team of AI agents to plan work, run more than 20 instruments and adjust its methods when results change, with people needed only to refill reagents and service equipment. In tests it encoded a message into 78 DNA strands and read it back exactly, reached a 97.8% yield in enzymatic DNA synthesis, and detected a known cancer-linked KRAS mutation. The researchers say the work is a step toward self-driving labs, but the system is still limited to nucleic-acid work and cannot yet run a lab on its own indefinitely.

Researchers in China have built an AI-native laboratory that can design and carry out DNA experiments with very little human help, according to a report in Nature. The system, called AutoDNA, uses a team of AI agents to plan work, run more than 20 instruments and adjust its methods when results change, with people needed only to refill reagents and service equipment. In tests it encoded a message into 78 DNA strands and read it back exactly, reached a 97.8% yield in enzymatic DNA synthesis, and detected a known cancer-linked KRAS mutation. The researchers say the work is a step toward self-driving labs, but the system is still limited to nucleic-acid work and cannot yet run a lab on its own indefinitely.

Researchers in China have built an AI-native laboratory that can design and carry out DNA experiments with very little human help, according to a report in Nature. The system, called AutoDNA, uses a team of AI agents to plan work, run more than 20 instruments and adjust its methods when results change, with people needed only to refill reagents and service equipment. In tests it encoded a message into 78 DNA strands and read it back exactly, reached a 97.8% yield in enzymatic DNA synthesis, and detected a known cancer-linked KRAS mutation. The researchers say the work is a step toward self-driving labs, but the system is still limited to nucleic-acid work and cannot yet run a lab on its own indefinitely.