Danaher Corporation has announced that it will build its first AI-powered autonomous laboratory meant to design, build, and test custom antibodies with minimal human intervention and with plans to reach full operating capacity in early 2027.Danaher supplies different instruments and reagents for drug developers and academic researchers, and the new lab is aimed at the expectation that automating the most time-consuming areas of early-stage discovery will give the company an edge commercially.The lab will be based at Abcam, one of Danaher’s operating companies, and combine AI, robotics, and tools from across the group in a single workflow. The system will use AI to design new affinity reagents, including antibodies, then have robots build and test the candidates. The results will feed back into the model, allowing each new round of designs to improve on the last, according to Danaher’s announcement. The company has termed this as a continuous “design-make-test-learn” loop.Five Danaher units will supply the underlying technology, including the Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, Cytiva, Genedata, Integrated DNA Technologies and Molecular Devices. The robotic automation and device orchestration was accessed via work with Automata, a firm Danaher invested in back in January 2026, according to Quartz.Eight times faster with ten times more outputAccording to the company’s press release, the lab is expected to speed up affinity reagent discovery by up to eight times and eventually increase annual reagent output by almost ten times, moving from tens to hundreds as it scales over time.JC Gutierrez-Ramos, Danaher’s senior vice president and chief science officer, said the lab represents a new way of doing scientific research, combining AI and automation with human expertise in a continuous cycle. He added that scientists would still make the key decisions, while the autonomous platform would handle the repetitive experimental work.Danaher CEO Julie Sawyer Montgomery described the project as an early step and not a finished system. She said it could help usher in a future where AI, automation, and intelligent systems contribute hugely to speed up the path from scientific discovery to real-world impact.Danaher pitches one lab with a larger planThe Abcam facility is expected to be the first step in a continuous effort to build what the company calls a fleet of smart instruments. These devices are designed to be easier to control through software, generate data that is ready for AI use, and run “expert-level” agentic systems.The instruments in use could eventually be connected across more autonomous labs, allowing the same self-improving cycle to run across different research programs, per the announcement.Investors reacted slightly positively, with shares rising by about 2% in premarket trading on Wednesday, according to Yahoo Finance data. Before the announcement, Barclays analyst Luke Sergott had raised his price target for Danaher to $255 from $230, while keeping an Overweight rating on the stock.Danaher shares were trading at around $219 as of the time of writing.If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.