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上海交通大学团队在《自然》报告 AutoDNA：由人工智能智能体在简短人类提示后，端到端设计并执行 DNA 相关实验；机械臂在二十多种仪器间转运样品，单次项目可完成逾一万一千个硬件步骤，人类主要补充试剂与维护设备。四项应用显示：酶促 DNA 合成产率可与专家优化相当；并发执行多项方案约比串行快 3.2 倍；完成 DNA 数据存储并精确恢复原始数字内容；识别并验证临床已检出的癌症相关突变 KRAS G13D。系统还将常被归于霍金的引言编码进 DNA 碱基并读回。Nature News（Heidi Ledford）2026-11-04 报道；DOI 10.1038/s41586-026-11228-6。阅读时可留意 artificial、intelligence、laboratory、prompt、storage 等词，以及 still、rather 如何保留研究边界。

正文

In most biology labs, skilled hands still mix samples and run machines. A new system at Shanghai Jiao Tong University aims to change that. Researchers there describe AutoDNA, an artificial intelligence laboratory that designs and runs DNA experiments after a short human prompt. Robotic arms then move samples among more than twenty kinds of laboratory instruments. The findings appear in Nature and were reported on 4 November 2026.

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在多数生物实验室里，熟练的双手仍在混合样品、操作仪器。上海交通大学的一套新系统试图改变这一点。研究者介绍了 AutoDNA：这是一个人工智能实验室，只需人类给出简短提示，就能设计并运行 DNA 实验。机械臂随后在二十多种实验室仪器之间转运样品。结果发表于《自然》（Nature），并于2026年11月4日报道。

Many earlier autonomous labs put AI on top of existing tools and still needed experts to set each device. Haibo Chen, a computer scientist at the university and a co-author, notes that people often must configure instruments by hand while AI handles only one part of the process. Chen and colleagues therefore built AutoDNA from the start so that AI agents could plan, adjust, and control the whole workflow. Humans mainly refresh chemicals and service the hardware. In one reported project the system handled more than eleven thousand hardware steps across those instruments.

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许多较早的自主实验室是把人工智能叠在现有工具之上，仍需专家逐一设置设备。共同作者、该校计算机科学家陈海波指出：人们往往仍要手工配置仪器，而人工智能只处理流程的一部分。因此陈海波与同事从一开始就按人工智能原生思路构建 AutoDNA，让多个智能体能够规划、调整并控制整个工作流。人类主要负责补充试剂和维护硬件。在一项已报告的项目中，该系统在这些仪器上完成了逾一万一千个硬件步骤。

The team tested AutoDNA on four tasks. It matched expert-level yields in enzymatic DNA synthesis. It also ran several protocols at the same time about 3.2 times faster than doing them one after another. In a DNA data storage trial, AutoDNA wrote digital information into DNA and later recovered the original content exactly. It further identified and confirmed a cancer-linked mutation known as KRAS G13D that had already been detected in a clinical sample.

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团队用四项任务检验 AutoDNA。它在酶促 DNA 合成中达到与专家优化相当的产率；同时并行执行多项实验方案，速度约为串行的 3.2 倍。在 DNA 数据存储试验中，AutoDNA 把数字信息写入 DNA，并随后精确恢复原始内容。它还识别并确认了临床样本中已检测到的癌症相关突变 KRAS G13D。

In another demonstration, the laboratory encoded a popular quotation often attributed to cosmologist Stephen Hawking: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” The four DNA letters — A, C, G and T — carried the message, and the system read it back. Outside expert Milad Abolhasani of North Carolina State University praised the degree of autonomy and the diverse mix of equipment. He said the future of science is going to involve many autonomous labs.

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在另一项演示中，实验室把一句常被归于宇宙学家斯蒂芬·霍金的流行引言编码进 DNA：“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”（智力是适应变化的能力。）四个 DNA 碱基字母——A、C、G、T——承载信息，系统再把它读回。北卡罗来纳州立大学的外部专家 Milad Abolhasani 称赞其自主程度与设备组合的多样性，并表示未来科学将涉及许多这样的自主实验室。

AutoDNA still has clear limits. People must keep supplies ready, and the published work focuses on nucleic acid operations — synthesis, transcription, amplification and sequencing — rather than every kind of biology experiment. Even so, the Shanghai team presents a practical blueprint of science as a service: give a prompt, and AI plus robots carry out complex molecular work with far less hands-on labor than a traditional wet lab.

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AutoDNA 仍有明确边界。人必须保证耗材就绪；已发表工作聚焦核酸操作——合成、转录、扩增与测序——而非一切生物学实验。即便如此，上海团队给出了“科学即服务”的实用蓝图：给出提示，人工智能加机器人就能完成复杂分子工作，动手劳动远少于传统湿实验室。

新闻来源

• Nature News · AI agents run this automated biology lab that sequences DNA and more (4 Nov 2026)
• Nature · An AI-native experimental laboratory for autonomous biomolecular operations (Wu et al.; DOI 10.1038/s41586-026-11228-6)
• Nature News & Views · AI agents enter the ‘wet lab’ (Zou; 4 Nov 2026)

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