SEPTEMBER 15, 2026 · SEAPORT BOSTON
REAL 2026
Getting Real About Automated Labs
The people running automated labs, and the ones building the technology behind them.
/ ABOUT
Readiness & Enablement for Automated Labs.
With the rapid maturation of physical AI and agentic platforms for pharmaceutical R&D, laboratory automation is evolving at an unprecedented pace — integrating robotics with seamless data capture, analytics, and AI/ML.
Achieving the fully integrated "lab-in-the-loop" vision requires bridging decades of pharma expertise with the cutting edge of life-science technology. REAL 2026 brings pharma, biotech, automation, data, and AI leaders together — with candor — to accelerate our collective learning.
/ SPEAKERS
Featured speakers.
Perspectives from the people actually building and running automated labs.
Ryan Leung
Vice President and Head of Life Science Product
LILA
Nevin Gerek Ince
Director, Digital Labs, Research Digital Products
NOVO NORDISK
Todd Edwards
Chief Technology Integration Officer, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
PNNL
Matt Studney
Chief Customer Officer
TETRASCIENCE
Xinnian Li
Principal Scientist Leading Autonomous Robotic Orchestration and Data Automation
MERCK
Tom Rawlins
VP, Marketing
HIGHRES
Chirag Patel
Head of Sales, North America
AUTOMATA
Michael Hopkins
Product Management, Lab Automation
BENCHLING
Darren Pittman
Principal Lab Orchestration Architect
DOTMATICS
/ AGENDA
One day. Ten sessions.
Morning frames the vision and the demand side. Afternoon turns to enablers and what's real today. The closing panel puts them together.
- 9:00 – 9:45 AM
Registration, Breakfast & Networking
Grab a coffee and meet the people who are actually building the labs of tomorrow.
- 9:45 – 10:00 AM
Welcome to REAL (Melissa Landon — Millipore Sigma)
A frank kickoff to a day built on shared learning.
- 10:00 – 10:30 AM
Keynote: The Autonomous Wet Lab of the Future (Jason Kelly — Ginkgo)KEYNOTE
A look at what it takes to build the Waymo of wet labs.
- 10:30 – 10:50 AM
Pharma Perspective I: What Next-Gen Actually Looks Like at the BenchTALK
Real lessons from inside a major pharma's automation build-out — the wins, the false starts, and what they'd do differently.
- 10:50 – 11:10 AM
Pharma Perspective II: Where the Real Excitement IsTALK
A second pharma vantage point on where automation is headed next, and what's got teams energized.
- 11:10 – 11:50 AM
Coffee BreakBREAK
- 11:50 AM – 12:10 PM
National Lab Perspective: A Real Implementation StoryTALK
Lessons from a national lab that's already living the automated-lab reality.
- 12:10 – 12:50 PM
Market View: What We're Seeing Across the Industry (Zifo)WORKSHOP
A 25-minute view from the front lines of the market, plus live Q&A on where the puck is headed.
- 12:50 – 2:00 PM
Lunch + Optional Ginkgo Facility Tour
Fuel up, with an optional tour of a working autonomous lab.
- 2:00 – 2:30 PM
Lightning Round: Hardware InnovatorsTALK
Rapid-fire talks on what's possible today and what's on the roadmap from the teams building the physical layer of automated labs:
- HighRes
- Biosero
- Automata
- 2:30 – 3:00 PM
Lightning Round: Software & Data InfrastructureTALK
Rapid-fire talks from the other half of the stack — the platforms turning lab data into usable intelligence:
- Benchling
- Dotmatics
- TetraScience
- 3:00 – 3:20 PM
Agentic AI's Role in the Next-Gen Automated LabTALK
Where autonomous agents fit into the lab-in-the-loop vision and how close we really are.
- 3:20 – 3:40 PM
Coffee BreakBREAK
- 3:40 – 4:00 PM
Closing the Loop: Integrating Automated Wet Labs and Data Generation (LILA)TALK
A practical look at what it takes to connect physical experimentation with the data systems built to learn from it.
- 4:00 – 4:45 PM
Closing Panel: What Will It Actually Take to Make It REAL?PANEL
Pharma, hardware, and data/AI leaders go head-to-head on the honest question: how do we actually get this done together?
- 4:45 – 5:00 PM
Closing Remarks
- 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Reception at Ginkgo
25 Drydock Ave (8 min walk). Unwind and keep the conversation going over drinks.
/ VENUE
In the heart of Boston's innovation district.
/ VENUE GALLERY
/ SPONSORS
Made possible by our partners.
/ FAQ