BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) and Opentrons Labworks, a specialist in lab automation, have entered into a multi-year collaboration to integrate their technologies and advance automation in disease research and drug development, the companies announced on October 8.
The partnership will combine BD’s Rhapsody single-cell analysis system with the Opentrons Flex robotic platform, enabling scientists to perform hands-free, automated workflows for single-cell multiomics experiments. The integration is designed to make large-scale single-cell sequencing faster, easier, and more cost-effective for laboratories worldwide.
A key component of the collaboration is the creation of an automation-compatible module for BD’s Rhapsody systems, allowing certain research and development procedures to be conducted autonomously. Neither company disclosed the duration or financial terms of the agreement.
“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,” said Ranga Partha, Vice President at BD. “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.”
The partnership underscores the growing demand for automated, high-throughput solutions in biomedical research, where automation is helping overcome bottlenecks in sample processing and data generation.
For Opentrons, this collaboration comes eight months after a similar agreement with Merck KGaA’s MilliporeSigma, aimed at automating assay kits using its Flex platform. That deal also did not disclose financial details but marked a strategic expansion of Opentrons’ role in enabling robotics-driven life sciences research.
By merging BD’s single-cell expertise with Opentrons’ automation capabilities, the two companies aim to democratize access to multiomic workflows, reducing human error and accelerating discoveries in fields such as oncology, immunology, and precision medicine.
