Tetsuwan Scientific is making robotic AI scientists that can run experiments on their own

Cristian Ponce and Théo Schäfer founded Tetsuwan Scientific after bonding over the challenges of lab work at a 2023 Entrepreneur First Halloween party. Schäfer, with experience at MIT and NASA, and Ponce, a Caltech bioengineer, aimed to address the manual labor in genetic engineering, particularly pipetting, a time-consuming and tedious process. Existing lab robots were expensive, required programming expertise, and lacked flexibility, often making human effort more practical.

In May 2024, inspired by OpenAI’s multi-model product launch, they realized large language models (LLMs) could bridge the gap between interpreting scientific data and automating physical tasks. For instance, GPT-4 successfully analyzed a DNA gel image, identified a primer dimer issue, and suggested corrective actions, demonstrating its scientific reasoning potential.

Tetsuwan Scientific's robots, unlike humanoid designs, are cube-shaped and equipped with advanced software and sensors to autonomously perform and adjust scientific experiments. They translate experimental intent into robotic actions, accounting for factors like liquid viscosity and calibration.

The company’s alpha customer, La Jolla Labs, is using the robots for RNA drug dosage analysis. Tetsuwan has also raised $2.7 million in pre-seed funding from 2048 Ventures and others. Ponce envisions these AI-driven robots as a transformative step toward automating the scientific method, potentially accelerating scientific discovery exponentially.

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