BD (Becton Dickinson and Company), a global leader in medical technology, and Opentrons Labworks, a pioneer in accessible lab automation with over 10,000 robotic systems deployed worldwide, announced a multi-year strategic collaboration. This partnership will integrate robotic liquid-handling capabilities into BD single-cell multiomics instruments, automating key experimental steps to accelerate disease research and streamline drug development.
“By revealing the multiple layers of biological information within cells, the field of single-cell multiomics is quickly transforming research in oncology, immunology and beyond – and automation can further accelerate adoption especially in translational and biopharma settings,” said Ranga Partha, PhD, VP/GM of Global Marketing and Strategic Growth Areas, BD Biosciences. “By integrating robotics with our instruments – including the BD Rhapsody® HT Xpress System which enables million-cell studies – we are helping scientists access potentially life-changing insights with greater speed, scale and reproducibility.”
Under the collaboration, BD and Opentrons plan to integrate the BD Rhapsody™ System with the Opentrons Flex® platform and develop verified automation protocols. These enhancements will enable scientists to conduct hands-free workflows in single-cell multiomics experiments, reducing manual intervention and increasing throughput. A key focus will be the creation of an automation-compatible module for the BD Rhapsody™ System, capable of automating next-generation sequencing library preparation and cell capture steps.
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“This collaboration brings together the long-standing expertise of BD in the field of single-cell multiomics with the flexible and open automation ecosystem of Opentrons,” said James Atwood, PhD, CEO of Opentrons Labworks. “By combining our hardware platforms, we are making it easier and more cost-effective for labs everywhere, across basic and translational research, to perform cutting-edge single-cell sequencing at scale.”
This partnership highlights the growing importance of automation in advanced research workflows and underscores both companies’ commitment to accelerating scientific discovery, improving reproducibility, and empowering laboratories to generate high-quality data at scale.