Scalable, Smart, and Accessible: The Future of Lab Automation
Sponsored Content by Trilobio
Reviewed by Aimee Molineux
Apr 8 2025
For decades, lab automation appeared to be an elusive dream for many scientists, hindered by prohibitive costs and complex system integrations. Trilobio is setting out to change that narrative. News Medical recently connected with Roya Amini-Naieni, CEO and co-founder of Trilobio, to explore how their cost-effective, modular robots are revolutionizing biology labs and what the future might hold for automated research.
Introducing Trilobio: A New Era in Lab Automation
Roya Amini-Naieni shared insights on the inception of Trilobio, stating, “Our mission is to make fully automated laboratories accessible to every biologist.” In operation for over two years, Trilobio has developed a groundbreaking suite of modular robots, known as Trilobots, with the capability to automate workflows in molecular and synthetic biology comprehensively.
Currently, Trilobio’s systems are being utilized across the United States in diverse fields such as biotherapeutics development, research on rare cancer treatments, and bio-prospecting, all while being in a pilot phase and preparing for a commercial launch.
Trilobio’s Unique Approach: Affordability Meets Usability
The core of Trilobio’s platform lies in its accessibility. Trilobots are ingeniously designed to snap together like Legos, easily transferring plates among themselves, which removes the need for manual handling. Moreover, their system is self-sufficient, eliminating the necessity for costly robotic integration services, effectively breaking down the barriers that have traditionally made automation unattainable for many labs.
Streamlining Calibration and Reducing Manual Inputs
Addressing the common challenge of manual calibration in automated systems, Trilobio has introduced an auto-calibration system capable of completing the process in approximately eight minutes. This innovation replaces the tedious task of manually measuring labware dimensions with calipers, a process that could previously extend over days or weeks, significantly expediting setup and minimizing human error.
No Coding Required
Roya elaborates on the user-friendly nature of their platform, emphasizing that no prior programming or coding knowledge is necessary. She explains, “Our software is designed to be entirely no-code. We offer a comprehensive LIMs system that tracks all labware, tools, and reagents on a user’s deck.” With an interface modeled after a traditional lab notebook, the software translates documented experiments into optimized machine code suitable for specific Trilobot setups.
Enhancing Collaborative Research
Trilobio’s system fosters collaboration by allowing researchers to share experiments across different laboratories, regardless of equipment configurations. Their research engine adapts any experiment to align with the available resources at each lab, ensuring both reproducibility and portability.
Impact of Lab Automation on the Scientific Community
Reflecting on the broader implications of automated labs, Roya envisions a future where full automation is the standard. By liberating scientists from repetitive manual tasks, new research opportunities can be unlocked — enabling experiments to run overnight or even through weekends. This paradigm shift empowers researchers to focus on high-level experimental designs rather than the minutiae of execution, potentially leading to a new era of scientific discoveries.
A Personal Passion for Accessible Technology
Roya’s background as a biologist heavily influences the development of Trilobio’s technology. She acknowledges the high costs and inaccessibility of existing automation technologies as a key challenge. Thus, Trilobio’s platform is designed to be both cost-effective and easy to use, removing the need for custom integration and slashing hardware costs, making it feasible even for small academic labs.
Innovating Microfluidics
Trilobio is poised to make significant strides in microfluidics by interfacing their platform with microfluidic modules to miniaturize experiments, reduce reagent use, and accelerate workflows. Roya speculates that microfluidic chips could serve as the “GPUs for lab automation,” potentially reshaping the field as their large-scale automation comes to fruition.
Looking Ahead: Trilobio’s Roadmap
As Trilobio gears up to scale and launch their platform more broadly, Roya’s vision sees high-throughput, reproducible experimentation becoming accessible to every scientist, irrespective of lab size or funding. Their ambition is to play a pivotal role in a future where automation drives innovation across the life sciences sector.
About the Interviewee
Roya Amini-Naieni, CEO and co-founder of Trilobio, has a diverse academic background in mathematics, computer science, and biology from Harvey Mudd College. She has established a series of successful research initiatives and has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.
