Danaher is putting its money where its automation ambitions are, planning to launch its first AI-powered autonomous lab as early as next year to accelerate drug discovery and development.
In a statement on Wednesday, the San Francisco-based life sciences company Danaher said the lab will be based at Abcam and will combine technology from five other Danaher businesses, including Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, Cytiva, Genedata, Integrated DNA Technologies, and Molecular Devices.
The facility pairs AI models with robotic hardware to automate the design, synthesis, and testing of custom antibodies and other molecular tools. This connected workflow could accelerate affinity reagent discovery by up to eightfold and increase annual reagent generation tenfold, per the statement.
"By applying our science, technology and culture of continuous improvement, we can help turn promising ideas into validated systems faster," Danaher CEO Julie Sawyer Montgomery said. "It is an important step toward a future where AI, automation and intelligent systems dramatically accelerate the journey from discovery to impact."
The lab is part of Danaher's broader push to build smarter instruments that plug into each other more easily, generate AI-ready data, and include agentic systems for operation and data quality, the company said.
The development comes as other AI players push into physical lab work. Last month, Reuters reported that Anthropic set up a wet lab in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year as it expanded biology research beyond computer-based work. Eric Kauderer-Abrams, Anthropic's head of life sciences, said the company is conducting physical experiments internally and with partners.