LLM agents run DNA experiments, rewriting protocols to grab idle lab instruments

bravo_abad · x · 2026-11-06

A system called AutoDNA, built by Wu and colleagues, shows LLM agents autonomously orchestrating wet-lab DNA experiments:

Built on Gemini 2.5 Pro, the agents receive descriptions of instrument capabilities and callable operations like liquid transfer, mixing and heating.
When a heater was occupied, the agent recognized an idle thermal cycler could hold the required temperature and rewrote the experimental code to use it — capturing the lab reality that protocols must adapt to available equipment.
The same approach coordinated multiple DNA synthesis protocols, combining compatible operations so a multichannel pipette handled transfers together, cutting mean execution time across two runs.

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