CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Zifo has announced the launch of REAL 2026: Readiness & Enablement for Automated Labs, an invite-only industry summit focused on connected, AI-enabled laboratory environments.
The event will take place Sept. 15 in Boston’s Seaport District and bring together senior leaders from pharma, biotech, automation, data and artificial intelligence.
REAL 2026 will focus on the development of integrated “lab-in-the-loop” environments that combine robotics, scientific data, analytics and AI. The summit is intended to encourage discussion between organizations developing automated laboratory technologies and companies deploying them in research settings.
“The future of lab innovation will depend on more than automation alone. Real progress requires bringing together scientists, automation experts, data leaders, and AI practitioners to address the technical, operational, and organizational challenges of creating truly connected laboratories. We are proud to announce the launch of REAL 2026 and contribute to these important industry conversations,” said Margaret DiFilippo, Zifo’s Head of Commercial in North America.
The event will feature speakers from organizations including Novo Nordisk, Merck, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Lila Sciences, TetraScience, Benchling, Dotmatics, HighRes and Automata.
Sessions will address autonomous wet labs, translational bioanalytics, AI-ready laboratory infrastructure, lab automation, scientific data platforms and autonomous research environments.
Scheduled speakers include Xinnian Li and Carol Rohl of Merck; Nevin Gerek of Novo Nordisk; Todd Edwards of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Tom Rawlins of HighRes; Bohui Li, Ph.D., of XtalPi; Chirag Patel of Automata; Michael Hopkins of Benchling; Darren Pittman of Dotmatics; Matt Studney of TetraScience; and Ryan Leung of Lila Sciences.
The closing panel, “What Will It Actually Take to Make It REAL?,” will be moderated by Stacie Calad-Thomson, Ph.D., Global Business Development Lead, Pharma Labs and Manufacturing at NVIDIA.
Zifo said the summit comes as laboratories generate increasing volumes of scientific data and companies pursue greater levels of automation, creating demand for more integrated and interoperable research environments.
REAL 2026 is designed for senior leaders across pharma, biotech, automation, data and AI. Most sessions will not be recorded, though a written recap will be provided to attendees.
Participation is by invitation, and interested attendees can request an invitation through the event registration page.
