IBM debuts chemical synthesis robot

Abstract

Got a molecule in mind? Artificial intelligence (AI)–powered synthesis robots may soon take it from there. In a recent virtual event, IBM launched RoboRXN, a fully automated synthesis system. As project manager Teodoro Laino and his team discussed the platform, RoboRXN was in the background preparing a derivative of 3-bromobenzonitrile. RoboRXN builds on IBM RXN for Chemistry, free, cloud-based software the firm launched in 2018 to predict the outcome of chemical reactions. In 2019, Laino’s team added a retrosynthesis tool that enables users to draw a molecule and have the software design a synthesis for it. They’ve now brought in hardware, creating a robot that can execute the synthesis. “With the RoboRXN technology, we are expecting to accelerate, profoundly, the way we do material discovery,” Laino said in a video accompanying the event. Other groups have paired robots with AI-assisted synthesis planning, including SRI International, which unveiled its in January.