March 12, 2025 | News & Notices
Demonstration of the usefulness of an autonomous experimental system that automatically develops hypotheses from experiments
Joint research results with Kobe University published in Scientific Reports
A research group from the Graduate School of Engineering Kobe University and Shimadzu Corporation has developed a prototype of an autonomous experimental system (Autonomous Lab) that utilizes robots and AI, and have successfully demonstrated its effectiveness through experiments that autonomously repeat processes of cell culture, sample pretreatment, measurement, analysis, and hypothesis formulation.
The system includes the world's first robot-compatible liquid chromatograph (LC) and liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer (LC-MS). By Utilizing Bayesian optimization (a machine learning method that estimates unknown functions), the system effectively repeats experiments and scientific hypothesis formulation. Since 2021, Shimadzu Corporation has installed this system in the Biofoundry Laboratory at the Kobe University and has been conducting collaborative research.
The results of this research were published online on February 24, 2025, in the international journal Scientific Reports.
Information about the Published Paper
| Title | ： | Development of the autonomous lab system to support biotechnology research |
| Authors | ： | Keiji Fushimi, Yusuke Nakai, Akiko Nishi, Ryo Suzuki, Masahiro Ikegami, Risa Nimura, Taichi Tomono, Ryota Hidese, Hisashi Yasueda, Yusuke Tagawa & Tomohisa Hasunuma |
| Journal | ： | Scientific Reports |
| DOI | ： | 10.1038/s41598-025-89069-y |
| URL | ： | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-89069-y |