Summer School 2026
Welcome & Registration
NSF iBioFoundry: History and Vision
Course Overview
Introduction to Lab Automation & Liquid Handling
Fundamentals of Liquid Handling Technologies
Lunch
Hands-on Training: Basics of Liquid Handling
Tecan Fluent & Beckman Coulter Echo
4 groups rotating through instrument stations
Invited Lecture 1: From Automation to Design: Building a Common Infrastructure for Autonomous Biology Laboratories
Discussion
Coffee + Snacks
Protein Engineering: Bench to AI/ML, A Historical Perspective
Invited Lecture 2: AI for Protein Discovery and Engineering
AI/ML for Synthetic Biology: High-Level Overview
AI/ML Tools for Laboratory Automation: FluentAgent
Lunch
Hands-on Training: AI/ML for Synthetic Biology
2 groups rotating between parallel AI/ML sessions
Coffee + Snacks
Advanced Liquid Handling & Method Development
Case Studies for AI/ML Tools in Synthetic Biology
Lunch
Liquid Handling Group Competition
How Momentum Enables Autonomous Lab
Social Outing: Illini Union Bowling + Pizza
Coffee + Snacks
IBRL Tour
Robotic Integration & Closed-Loop DBTL
Analytical Methods for Biofoundries: High-Throughput Mass Spectrometry
An Introduction to Echo Acoustic Liquid Handling and Automation
Lunch
AI/ML Tools for Biofoundries & Robotic Integration for Automation
2 rotating teams
Project Brainstorming & Friday Presentation Preparation
Coffee + Snacks
Group Presentations
15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A each
Break
Evaluations / Complete Feedback Forms
Pop Quiz
Concluding Remarks
Group Photo + Certificates
Closing Lunch
Course Instructors
Prof. Huimin Zhao
Director, NSF iBioFoundry · UIUC
Steven L. Miller Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Director of the NSF iBioFoundry. Internationally recognized for contributions to synthetic biology, directed evolution, biofoundry automation, and AI-driven protein engineering.
Dr. Nilmani Singh
User Program Manager, NSF iBioFoundry
User program manager and operational lead of the iBioFoundry, with a background in automation, synthetic biology, and cell biology. Leads automation and user projects across the biofoundry platform and supports the center's outreach activities.
Steven Jarsen
Automation Engineer, NSF iBioFoundry
Application specialist focused on automation workflow design and on system operations and maintenance. With a background in plant biology and automation, plays a key role in the design and development of new automation pipelines.
Dr. Jingxia Lu
Automation Engineer, NSF iBioFoundry
Automation engineer with expertise in analytical methods and synthetic biology. Develops automation workflows, including high-throughput mass-spec method development, and supports the center's operational and outreach activities.
Dr. Vikas Upadhyay
AI/ML Researcher, NSF iBioFoundry
Computational scientist focused on AI/ML and agentic systems for synthetic biology. With a background in optimization and bioengineering, develops and evaluates tools that link biological design with automated biofoundry experimentation.
Junyu Chen
Graduate Student
Ph.D. candidate in Bioengineering whose research lies at the intersection of synthetic biology, machine learning, and automation. He develops synthetic biology and agentic AI tools that accelerate Design–Build–Test–Learn cycles, advancing high-throughput protein and metabolic engineering on biofoundry platforms.
Invited Speakers
Prof. Dionysios A. Antonopoulos
Director, Biosciences Division · Argonne National Laboratory
Dr. Dion Antonopoulos is the Division Director for Biosciences and Interim Division Director for Environmental Science at Argonne National Laboratory. His research has focused on a mechanistic understanding of the factors that shape and stabilize microbial community function within a variety of environmental systems, and more recently on engineering such communities directly. As Division Director for Biosciences, he oversees staff representing a broad range of research topics including applied molecular engineering, biogeochemical processes, bioimaging, biosystems design, microfluidics and laboratory automation, microbial ecology, and synthetic biology. He joined Argonne in 2008 and holds a joint appointment at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Ge Liu
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Ge Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research develops scalable, reliable, and geometry-aware deep generative models and sequential optimization techniques to solve critical problems in synthetic biology, immunology, and molecular biology. Her work aims to move beyond predictive modeling towards the autonomous, de novo design of functional molecules. She specializes in geometry-aware multimodal flow matching, diffusion models, and reinforcement learning to computationally design novel antibodies, enzymes, catalysts, and vaccines. Dr. Liu received her Ph.D. from MIT's EECS department, where her thesis won the George M. Sprowls Thesis Award in AI and Decision-Making. She conducted her postdoctoral research with Dr. David Baker at the Institute for Protein Design. Her long-term vision is to create autonomous AI systems that accelerate the entire discovery cycle for next-generation therapeutics and sustainable biotechnologies.
Puxin Zhang
Product Manager, Digital Science & Automation Solutions · Thermo Fisher Scientific
Puxin Zhang is a Product Manager on the Digital Science & Automation Solutions team at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he specializes in laboratory automation and leads initiatives focused on Thermo Scientific™ Momentum™ Workflow Scheduling software. With six years at Thermo Fisher and more than 20 years of experience in software development and automation technologies, Puxin brings deep expertise in both automation software and robotic hardware solutions. His background spans product development, lifecycle management, and strategic product leadership, with a strong track record of driving innovation and delivering successful automation solutions across the technology and life sciences industries.
Dr. John Fuller
Product Marketing Manager, Echo Instruments · Beckman Coulter Life Sciences
Dr. John Fuller is the Product Marketing Manager for Echo Instruments at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences. Prior to this role, John held positions in field applications and product management. He earned a B.S. in Biology from the Virginia Military Institute, a Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Genetics from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Hands-on Instructors
Dr. Nilmani Singh
Automation Team
Dr. Jingxia Lu
Automation Team
Steven Jarsen
Automation Team
Dr. Shih-I Tan
Automation Team
Zhixin Zhu
Automation Team
Aurosish Sharma
Automation Team
Michael Volk
AI/ML Team
Dr. Vikas Upadhyay
AI/ML Team
Junyu Chen
AI/ML Team
Saman Shafei
AI/ML Team
Sponsors
