Open Biocenters

An Open Biocenter is a data center for biology.

GaudiLabs (Urs Gaudenz, Miranda Moss) and Radical Design Studio (JB Labrune) have partnered inside the Open Science Foundation at Etherlaken to build a physical laboratory operable end to end through human-AI collaboration, from a browser or a phone. The first prototype, the OpenDrop BioServer, was installed on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, in the premises that prefigure the foundation site in Interlaken, Switzerland.

Fifty-four machine slots, one filled Fifty-four dots arranged in a spiral, one for each machine slot on a biocenter floor, identical to each other and each wired by a faint line to its two nearest neighbours. One dot near the center is drawn in the accent color: the OpenDrop BioServer, the only unit installed so far. Bolts of light run along the wiring, two in five of them starting at that one unit.

Premise

Biology still runs by hand

Most experiments happen in a local lab, performed by a person standing at a bench. Compute met the same limit and answered it with data centers: shared machines, remote access, capacity added one unit at a time. Biology has no equivalent.

Canty et al., Science acceleration and accessibility with self-driving labs, Nature Communications, 2025.

Vision

Open Biocenters

An Open Biocenter is a building that holds machines instead of benches. Each machine automates one class of experiment and occupies one slot in a rack. Capacity grows by adding slots.

Plan of one floor of an Open Biocenter A rectangular floor plan. Nine columns of three machine slots run along the top half and nine more along the bottom half, separated by a service corridor. Fifty-four slots in total, drawn identically to show that the facility is built by repeating one unit. One slot in the third column of the top half is filled in a warm tint and labeled as the OpenDrop BioServer, the single unit installed so far. plan of one floor OpenDrop BioServer service corridor one cell = one machine
The OpenDrop BioServer: a glass and aluminium enclosure lit by a blue strip, two red OpenDrop boards on the upper shelf above two more red modules on white discs, a reagent bottle and sample cards on the shelf below, and a console on a mount above the case showing a boot log.

Remote experimentation

How remote experimentation works

A team anywhere on the planet opens a web page or a phone. Commands travel to a machine in Interlaken, which moves a real sample. Onboard sensors and a camera report what happened.

On the way back, deep machine vision reads the images and world models turn them into a state the team can act on.

The remote experimentation loop A closed ring of six stages, read clockwise from the top. A distributed team acts through a browser or phone interface. The command reaches the machines in Interlaken and moves a physical sample. Sensors and a camera observe what happened, an AI collaboration layer built on deep machine vision and world models turns that observation into a state the team can act on, and it arrives back at the team, closing the loop. The last two stages, observation to AI layer to team, are the return path and are drawn in full weight. return path distributed team browser or phone machines in Interlaken sample physical observation sensors, camera AI layer vision, world models
The OpenDrop Control web page. A sixteen by eight grid of clickable electrode cells fills the left panel, with toggles for two magnets and setpoint fields for three temperature sensors below it. The right panel shows live feedback: device identifier, frame count, and an empty sensor chart waiting for data.
The control page on September 1, 2026. Each cell of the grid is one electrode. Clicking one switches it and sends the command.

Design study, placeholder values

A design study for the operator console. A liquid handling deck and live parameter readouts fill the left column. The center holds a live camera feed of the OpenDrop BioServer, a panel offering a suggested adjustment with an Apply button, and a workflow timeline. The right column shows returned measurement charts and a list of collaborators with their locations and status.

First prototype

OpenDrop BioServer

Installed Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Interlaken, Switzerland.

The unit is a digital microfluidics device in a glass enclosure. Two OpenDrop boards sit on the upper shelf. Each carries an electrode array that moves droplets across a surface by switching voltage cell by cell, with magnets and heaters acting on the droplet as it travels. Samples and reagents sit on the shelf below.

A console reports the state of the machine. The unit answers to a web page over the network.

Open the live control page

Schematic of the OpenDrop BioServer A front section of the enclosure. A status console is mounted above it on a stem. Inside, the upper shelf carries two OpenDrop boards, each with an electrode array of sixteen by eight cells and a small onboard display. On the left board, fourteen cells picked out in a warm tint trace one droplet path: five cells to the right, two up, then seven more to the right. The lower shelf carries a reagent bottle and a tray of sample cards. A line leaves the enclosure and is labeled as the link to the browser. status console electrodes 16 by 8 per board OpenDrop board two of them samples and reagents to the browser aluminium frame, glass enclosure
The lighter cells trace one droplet path.
The roof of the Open Science Foundation premises at dusk, a long curved timber-clad hall with a spherical steel and glass structure raised on a column beside it, mountains behind.
Interlaken, Switzerland.

Principles

What follows from publishing the machine

Open hardware
The design files for every machine in the rack are public.
Open source
The control software is published and runs on hardware you own.
Auditable by reading
A claim about what a machine did can be checked against its design.
Forkable
Anyone can build a second unit and change it.
No vendor lock-in
No part of the stack is held by a single supplier.
Reproducible elsewhere
A result obtained here can be repeated on a machine someone else owns.
Remote by default
Every operation available at the bench is available over the network.
Observation first
The state of the sample returns before the next command is sent.

Partners

Who is building it

GaudiLabs
Urs Gaudenz, Miranda Moss
Open Science Foundation
Host of the partnership, at Etherlaken
Etherlaken
The site, Interlaken, Switzerland