Novo Nordisk, HighRes Biosolutions collaborate on robotic biologics discovery platform

HighRes Biosolutions and Novo Nordisk A/S said last week that they will work together to design a state-of-the-art robotic platform for high-throughput biologics engineering and characterization. Novo Nordisk said the integration of a multi-system robotics platform with a sophisticated software control architecture will accelerate discovery in its peptide and large molecule therapeutics research.

“In order to maintain our leadership within biologics engineering, we are investing in a fully automated and digital design platform,” stated Lars Fogh Iversen, senior vice president, global research technologies, at Novo Nordisk. “This investment is linked to our build-up in AI and advanced analytics and demonstrates Novo Nordisk’s commitment as a world-leading biologics research company.”

Novo Nordisk has more than 95 years of experience in diabetes care and treats obesity, hemophilia, growth disorders, and other serious chronic diseases. The Danish company employs approximately 42,200 people in 80 countries and markets its products in more than 170 countries.

Beverly, Mass.-based HighRes Biosolutions designs and builds laboratory automation systems, dynamic scheduling software, and lab automation instruments that accelerate and streamline drug discovery. HighRes said it offers flexible, modular solutions that enable its clients to scale and reconfigure their automation equipment as their assays or technology changes.

Novo Nordisk to use robotics for compound discovery, modification

The new system will include several highly automated and integrated cells for production, characterization, and functional analysis of thousands of biologic compounds per month, said the companies. Its scope will cover the full range, from small synthetic peptides to recombinantly expressed large proteins. It will also include chemical modification of the molecules.

The companies said they hope to build a medical system that is fully integrated with a modern data infrastructure and the data science and machine learning capabilities.

“We are very excited to be working with Novo Nordisk on their Lab of the Future,” said Ira Hoffman, CEO of HighRes Biosolutions. “We believe that the combination of our capabilities, products and vision make us the ideal partner for their digital transformation.”