Key points from article :
Lila Sciences, a young biotech company launched by Flagship Pioneering in 2023, is working toward building fully automated research labs where artificial intelligence can handle almost every step of scientific discovery. The aim is to let AI generate ideas, design experiments, run them through robotic systems and learn from the results without depending on human intervention.
The company has raised $235 million in a new series A round, more than doubling the $200 million it announced at its debut in March. This investment, led by Braidwell and Collective Global along with several other backers, will support the expansion of Lila’s “AI Science Factories,” with new or larger facilities planned in Boston, San Francisco and London.
The effort is guided by Geoffrey von Maltzahn, Ph.D., a Flagship general partner, and supported by chief scientist George Church, Ph.D., a well-known pioneer in gene editing whose past projects include work on de-extinction and engineered organs.
Lila describes its approach as a way to bring software, robotics and advanced AI models together in unified spaces that allow the scientific method to run on a continuous loop. These facilities are meant to test ideas rapidly and move from one experiment to the next at a pace that traditional labs cannot match.
According to the company, this system has already produced thousands of findings in biology, chemistry and materials science. Earlier in the year, Lila also shared that its tools had created improved designs for genetic medicines and generated a wide range of antibodies, peptides and binders with possible uses in new treatments.
