While much of the discussion at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) 2026 focused on orchestration, integration, and the execution gap in drug discovery, the conference’s New Product Award winners offered tangible examples of how those ideas are being translated into tools scientists can use today.
This year’s winners — Bionomous, Cube Biotech, and nNano AG — shared a common theme: automating historically manual, error-prone workflows without sacrificing experimental nuance.
Accelerating the adoption of NAMs
Bionomous was recognized for Sortivo, a benchtop system designed to automate the screening, sorting, and plating of complex biological entities ranging from approximately 300 micrometers to 2 millimeters in size. These include zebrafish embryos, organoids, and other large or delicate samples that, until now, have largely depended on hours of manual pipetting under a stereomicroscope.
Sortivo integrates high-resolution brightfield and multi-channel fluorescence imaging with AI-based classification and gentle, contact-minimizing handling. By combining image-based picking with large-particle sorting in a compact footprint, the system enables individualized, large-scale screening of complex samples — an approach that mirrors how flow cytometry transformed single-cell analysis.
The result is not just time savings, but reproducibility. Manual embryo or organoid handling can vary significantly between operators; automating these workflows helps standardize experimental inputs while freeing researchers to focus on analysis rather than execution.
Streamlining membrane protein workflows
Cube Biotech received a New Product Award for PlateX MP Strep-Tactin XT MagBeads, a ready-to-use plate designed for automated membrane protein solubilization and purification. It uses the Rho1D4-tag, which is optimized for high-purity capture.
Membrane protein work is notoriously challenging, with solubilization often requiring extensive trial-and-error across multiple detergents or polymers. PlateX MP addresses this by enabling rapid screening of eight synthetic copolymer variants in a single, automated run. The plate contains all required reagents — including copolymers, HighSpec Rho1D4 magnetic beads, and equilibration, wash, and elution buffers — provided in a lyophilized format.
Designed for use with liquid handlers, the system allows researchers to identify the most effective solubilization conditions and purify membrane proteins in as little as two hours, hands-free. By collapsing screening and purification into a single workflow, PlateX MP reduces both experimental complexity and turnaround time, helping teams move more quickly from construct to functional protein.
Precision at low volumes
The third New Product Award went to nNano AG for CERTUS RIVO, a newly developed 16-channel, contactless liquid dispenser optimized for precise low-volume applications.
CERTUS RIVO builds on user feedback from its predecessor, the CERTUS FLEX, which established a high-precision, contact-free micro-volume liquid handling system using patented microvalve technology. The original FLEX system enabled up to eight independently controlled channels and was designed for flexible, low- to medium-throughput dispensing across a wide dynamic range of liquid types and volumes.
RIVO represents a step change in capacity and performance, doubling throughput to 16 independently controlled channels while improving volumetric consistency and expanding its suitability for higher-throughput screening workflows. Alongside this scale-up, the system introduces a series of refinements designed to improve reliability in complex assay conditions, including on-the-fly dispensing, back-flush functionality to reduce sedimentation, and enhanced sensing for more consistent liquid handling.
To address common challenges associated with sensitive or particulate reagents, CERTUS RIVO also integrates built-in shaking and stirring to maintain sample homogeneity throughout dispensing. Its modular architecture allows the instrument to operate either as a standalone benchtop device or as part of a larger automation platform.
Importantly, both platforms operate without consumables such as cartridges or disposable tips, and use a single-shot microvalve-based mechanism to dispense a wide volume range — from nanoliters to milliliters. They are also controlled via the same proprietary software, enabling straightforward configuration of liquid types and custom plate layouts.
By offering independent channel control, variable volumes, and compatibility with a wide range of assay formats and plate types, CERTUS RIVO is designed to support rapid iteration and protocol miniaturization without compromising reproducibility.
Practical innovation over hype
The SLAS 2026 New Product Award winners reflect a broader shift underway in laboratory automation, with tools that address specific bottlenecks. In doing so, they reinforce a message that DDN heard repeatedly throughout the conference: The next phase of progress in drug discovery will be driven not just by smarter algorithms, but by technologies that make experimentation more reliable, more integrated, and easier to execute in real laboratory environments.
