# Self-driving laboratories for autonomous exploration of protein sequence space

> **NIH NIH R01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $354,480

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
We propose to develop fully autonomous “self-driving laboratories” to rapidly engineer enzymes for broad
applications in biomedicine and biocatalysis. Our approach mimics the methodology of a protein engineering
researcher with an AI layer that builds an understanding of protein sequence-structure-function and plans
experiments to test specific protein design hypotheses, and a robotic system that experimentally tests
designed proteins by synthesizing genes, expressing proteins, and performing biochemical measurements of
enzyme activity. Seamless integration between the intelligent agent and experimental automation enables fully
autonomous design-test-learn cycles to understand and optimize the sequence-function landscape. Self-
driving laboratories will revolutionize the fields of biomolecular engineering and synthetic biology by automating
highly inefficient, time consuming, and laborious protein engineering campaigns, enabling rapid turnaround,
and allowing researchers to focus efforts on important downstream applications.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11200786
- **Project number:** 7R01GM150929-03
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Philip Anthony Romero
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $354,480
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2023-09-19 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11200786

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11200786, Self-driving laboratories for autonomous exploration of protein sequence space (7R01GM150929-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11200786. Licensed CC0.

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