At the Technical University of Berlin, robots, analysis equipment, and artificial intelligence already work like a well-rehearsed team – largely without human help. In the so-called KIWI Biolab, a fully automated system independently plans, conducts, and evaluates experiments with microorganisms. The expertise is set to be used in the future in the new research center "The Simulated Human" (Si-M) by TU Berlin and Charité as well.
"I've always been interested in how to bring new biological processes from the lab to practice as quickly as possible," said Prof. Dr. Peter Neubauer, head of the Department of Bioprocess Engineering at TU Berlin and co-founder of the KIWI Biolab. The microbiologist and his team are developing processes with which bacteria, yeasts, or fungi in bioreactors not only grow optimally but also produce valuable substances such as proteins for the pharmaceutical industry.
However, the transition from small laboratory scale to industrial scale is difficult because the organisms react very sensitively to changes in their environment. To find the best conditions, the team creates mathematical models that describe growth, substrate consumption, and other parameters. These models are linked with robots and analysis equipment.
In the automated laboratory, robots take samples from the bioreactors at fixed times, transport them to measuring devices, and analyze them. The artificial intelligence controls the entire process: it decides when samples are taken, keeps temperature, pH value, and other parameters in the optimal range, ensures maximum yield, and aborts experiments if they are not promising.
"All of this is extremely interesting for the pharmaceutical industry," emphasized Neubauer. The development of a new drug costs an average of 2.5 billion US dollars and takes ten to 15 years. Every saved experiment and every day gained helps both patients and companies.
The KIWI Biolab is now considered one of the world's leading laboratories for the automated development of bioprocesses. In the future, the group wants to focus more on cell cultures – a topic that plays a central role in the new research center "The Simulated Human" (Si-M). The five-story building on the Berlin-Wedding campus will open on April 22, 2026. Medical professionals, natural scientists, and engineers from TU Berlin and Charité will work closely together there to develop new therapies and diagnostic procedures. Another focus of the team is the establishment of a data marketplace for the biotechnology industry, which is intended to provide standardized and reproducible experimental data.
"Robots and AI will play an increasingly important role in many laboratories in the future," said Neubauer. His team will only relocate a small part of the staff to the Si-M building, but will make the expertise available to many other research groups.
The research center "The Simulated Human" is intended to replace animal testing with organoid technologies and chips with human mini-organs, among other things, and to provide new insights into cellular processes.
