• Custom robotic workstation automates company’s broad portfolio of biology assays for academia, biotech, and pharma
• Meets growing need for autonomous tools that boost throughput and reproducibility
• Provides customers with verified and automated workflows

MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Opentrons Labworks, Inc., a leader in lab automation and accessible robotics, announced a multi-year agreement to automate assay kits on a custom Opentrons Flex® workstation.

Scientists and engineers will collaborate to develop and verify platform workflows utilizing the broad offering of automation-enabled assays from the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Together, the custom workstation and automation-enabled assays will deliver increased consistency and higher throughput by reducing manual processing and repetitive tasks with a user-friendly robotic system.

“Our customers are prioritizing tools and technologies that improve reproducibility and productivity, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks that take their science further, faster,” said Jean-Charles Wirth, Head of Science & Lab Solutions for the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. “Our partnership with Opentrons reinforces our focus to automate and digitalize the lab - supporting scientists at all stages with tools that can increase efficiency, safety, and success rates of delivering new potential therapeutics.”

Customers can place orders for workstations and assay kits starting mid-2025. Applications will include broad workflows across protein sample preparation, molecular, cell, and other biochemical and chemistry workflows launching throughout the length of the agreement.

“Part of our commitment to making lab automation as accessible as possible is finding partners who share a similar vision,” said Jonathan Brennan-Badal, CEO of Opentrons. “The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is a proven leader in terms of the breadth and quality of products they offer for pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, and we’re excited to combine that with our ability to provide world-class automation, service and support.”

By combining the automation expertise and service excellence of Opentrons with the powerful R&D, supply chain, and quality systems of the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany we will bring reliable products streamlining research from sample prep to analysis for immunodetection, protein research, enzyme technology, genome editing, omics research, pharmaceutical development, service and testing and cell culture.

This adds to existing Biology innovations to increase lab productivity from the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, like the Millicell® DCI Digital Cell Imager that allows for accelerated cell culture analysis with an intuitive interface while also adding to the company’s commitment to provide next-generation biology solutions such as their recent acquisition of HUB Organoids Holding B.V.

About the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has more than 28,000 employees and more than 55 total manufacturing and testing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products focused on scientific discovery, biomanufacturing and testing services. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and electronics.

Around 63,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From providing products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2023, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of € 21 billion in 65 countries.

The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, operate as MilliporeSigma in life science, EMD Serono in healthcare and EMD Electronics in electronics. Since its founding in 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company.

About Opentrons

Opentrons Labworks, Inc., a disruptive life science company and the current market leader in entry-level lab automation, accelerates innovation in research and healthcare through its integrated lab platform, which includes business units Opentrons® Robotics and Neochromosome™. Opentrons has raised over $200 million in funding and achieved unicorn status based on its innovative technologies. The Opentrons Flex® is Opentrons’ newest generation of liquid-handling lab robots, offering open-source accessibility and compatibility with generative AI tools. Opentrons Robotics provides thousands of institutions with flexible, easy-to-use lab robots, automating R&D operations and making robotics, a vast open-source library accessible to life sciences researchers worldwide. Opentrons is used in labs at the top 20 academic universities in the US and 14 of 15 leading global biopharmaceutical companies.