Robin: A multi-agent system for automating scientific discovery

TL;DR

Robin is a pioneering multi-agent AI system that automates the entire scientific discovery process, from hypothesis generation to experimental validation, leading to the identification of a novel treatment for dry age-related macular degeneration.

Contribution

Robin is the first fully automated multi-agent system capable of autonomously conducting all stages of scientific discovery within a lab-in-the-loop framework.

Findings

Identified ripasudil as a potential treatment for dAMD.

Validated ripasudil's efficacy through experimental data.

Discovered upregulation of ABCA1 as a mechanism of action.

Abstract

Scientific discovery is driven by the iterative process of background research, hypothesis generation, experimentation, and data analysis. Despite recent advancements in applying artificial intelligence to scientific discovery, no system has yet automated all of these stages in a single workflow. Here, we introduce Robin, the first multi-agent system capable of fully automating the key intellectual steps of the scientific process. By integrating literature search agents with data analysis agents, Robin can generate hypotheses, propose experiments, interpret experimental results, and generate updated hypotheses, achieving a semi-autonomous approach to scientific discovery. By applying this system, we were able to identify a novel treatment for dry age-related macular degeneration (dAMD), the major cause of blindness in the developed world. Robin proposed enhancing retinal pigment epithelium phagocytosis as a therapeutic strategy, and identified and validated a promising therapeutic candidate, ripasudil. Ripasudil is a clinically-used rho kinase (ROCK) inhibitor that has never previously been proposed for treating dAMD. To elucidate the mechanism of ripasudil-induced upregulation of phagocytosis, Robin then proposed and analyzed a follow-up RNA-seq experiment, which revealed upregulation of ABCA1, a critical lipid efflux pump and possible novel target. All hypotheses, experimental plans, data analyses, and data figures in the main text of this report were produced by Robin. As the first AI system to autonomously discover and validate a novel therapeutic candidate within an iterative lab-in-the-loop framework, Robin establishes a new paradigm for AI-driven scientific discovery.