INDUSTRY EVENT

REAL 2026: Readiness & Enablement for Automated Labs

Zifo joins Ginkgo Bioworks and MilliporeSigma for a one-day, invite-only summit on what it actually takes to build the lab of the future — the wins, the setbacks, and the honest lessons in between.

Date September 15, 2026
Location Seaport, Boston
Invite-only
Request an invite Meet Zifo at the event

As physical AI and agentic platforms mature, laboratory automation is moving faster than ever — knitting robotics together with real-time data capture, analytics and AI/ML. Reaching a truly integrated “lab-in-the-loop” model means bridging decades of pharma expertise with the newest life-science technology. REAL 2026 brings pharma, biotech, automation, data and AI leaders into one room to compare notes candidly and speed up what the industry collectively learns. Zifo is proud to sponsor the summit and to lead a market-view session on where the industry is really headed.

Agenda & Featured Speakers

9:00 – 9:45 AM

Registration, Breakfast & Networking

Grab a coffee and meet the people actually building the labs of tomorrow.

9:45 – 10:00 AM

Welcome to REAL

A frank kickoff to a day built on shared learning.

ML

Melissa Landon

MilliporeSigma

10:00 – 10:30 AM KEYNOTE

The Autonomous Wet Lab of the Future

A look at what it takes to build the Waymo of wet labs.

JK

Jason Kelly

Ginkgo

10:30 – 10:50 AM TALK

Unlocking Next Gen Translational Bioanalytics for Vaccine Studies for Preclinical and Clinical Studies

Real lessons from inside a major pharma's automation build-out — the wins, the false starts, and what they'd do differently.

XL

Xinnian Li

Principal Scientist Leading Autonomous Robotic Orchestration and Data Automation

Merck

CR

Carol Rohl

Associate Vice President, Global Research IT and Informatics

Merck

10:50 – 11:10 AM TALK

Building the Digital Ecosystem for the Lab of the Future From Data Chaos to AI-Ready Infrastructure

A second pharma vantage point on where automation is headed next, and what's got teams energized.

NG

Nevin Gerek

Director, Digital Labs, Research Digital Products

Novo Nordisk

11:10 – 11:50 AM

Coffee break

11:50 AM – 12:10 PM TALK

National Lab Perspective: a Real Implementation Story

Lessons from a national lab that's already living the automated-lab reality.

TE

Todd Edwards

Chief Technology Integration Officer, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

PNNL

12:10 – 12:50 PM ZIFO SESSION

Market View: What We're Seeing Across the Industry

A 25-minute view from the front lines of the market, plus live Q&A on where the puck is headed next.

ZT

Zifo team

Zifo

12:50 – 2:00 PM

Lunch + Optional Ginkgo Facility Tour

Fuel up, with an optional tour of a working autonomous lab.

2:00 – 2:30 PM TALK

Lightning Round: Hardware Innovators

Rapid-fire talks on what's possible today and what's on the roadmap from the teams building the physical layer of automated labs:

TR

Tom Rawlins

VP, Marketing

HiRes

BLP

Bohui Li, Ph.D.

Product Manager, Lab Automation Solutions

XtalPi

CP

Chirag Patel

Head of Sales

Automata

2:30 – 3:00 PM TALK

Lightning Round: Software & Data Infrastructure

Rapid-fire talks from the other half of the stack — the platforms turning lab data into usable intelligence:

MH

Michael Hopkins

Product Management, Lab Automation

Benchling

DP

Darren Pittman

Principal Lab Orchestration Architect

Dotmatics

MS

Matt Studney

Chief Customer Officer

TetraScience

3:00 – 3:30 PM Talk

Coffee Break

3:30 – 4:00 PM TALK

Scaling the Scientific Method: Frontier AI & Autonomous Labs on the Path to Superintelligence

Where autonomous agents fit into the lab-in-the-loop vision, and what it takes to connect physical experimentation with the data systems built to learn from it.

VPH

Vice President, Head of Life Sciences

Ryan Leung

LILA

4:00 – 4:45 PM PANEL

Closing Panel: What Will it Actually Take to Make it REAL?

Pharma, hardware, and data/AI leaders go head-to-head on the honest question: how do we actually get this done together?

MSC

Moderator: Stacie Calad-Thomson

Global Business Development Lead, Pharma Labs and Manufacturing

NVIDIA

4:45 – 5:00 PM

Closing Remarks

5:00 – 7:00 PM

Reception at Ginkgo

25 Drydock Ave (8 min walk). Unwind and keep the conversation going over drinks.

FAQ

At Ginkgo Bioworks in the Boston Seaport. Exact address and travel details are shared with confirmed attendees ahead of the day.
Yes. REAL 2026 is a curated, senior-audience event. Request an invitation via the registration link.
To encourage the candor that drives this summit, most sessions will not be recorded. A written recap will be shared with attendees.
Business casual. It's a working conversation, not a keynote hall.
Breakfast, lunch, and an evening reception are included. Let us know about dietary restrictions when you register.

Meet Zifo at REAL 2026

REAL 2026 is invite-only and run by Ginkgo Bioworks — request your invitation directly through their registration link.

If you’d like face time with the Zifo team while you’re there, tell us a bit about yourself and we’ll set up a slot around our market-view session.

Request a meeting