Sunthetics Joins Scripps Research and UCLA on $19.5 Million NSF Initiative to Build an Open-Access Autonomous Chemistry Lab
The National Science Foundation has awarded $19.5 million to a team from Scripps Research, UCLA, and Sunthetics to create an automated chemistry laboratory that researchers across the United States will be able to access remotely.
The Chemistry Node will be based at Scripps Research’s Automated Synthesis Facility in La Jolla, California. It will be one of 20 nodes within the NSF’s new Programmable Cloud Laboratories network.
Over the four-year project, the team will develop a system that can turn a researcher’s proposed study into an executable experiment, run that experiment using robotic laboratory equipment, evaluate the results, and recommend what should be tested next.
Sunthetics’ role in the node
Sunthetics will be in charge of the node’s friendly interface to interact with the capabilities of all three node partners. Moreover, Sunthetics will provide its industry-grade platform for AI-driven modeling and experimentation. Sunthetics CEO Daniela Blanco is a co-principal investigator on the award, working alongside lead investigator Brandon Orzolek and co-investigator Keary Engle of Scripps Research, as well as Abigail Doyle of UCLA.
The project builds on a challenge Sunthetics already addresses for pharmaceutical and chemical R&D teams through SuntheticsML. Every experiment requires materials, instrument time, and researchers’ attention. The question is not simply whether more experiments can be run, but which experiment is most valuable to run next.
For the Chemistry Node, Sunthetics will connect that decision-making capability directly to the laboratory’s robotic infrastructure. The goal is to create a closed-loop workflow in which experimental results inform the next recommendation, allowing researchers to learn faster while using laboratory resources more efficiently.
“We have been working toward this kind of closed-loop laboratory for years,” said Daniela Blanco, CEO of Sunthetics. “This award gives us the opportunity to connect intelligent experimental planning directly with automated chemistry and make that capability available to researchers across the country. I’m especially excited about what becomes possible as the system learns from a growing body of shared experimental data. That could help scientists explore areas of chemistry that are difficult to reach with today’s research workflows.”
