Lab automation systems generate large amounts of experimental data in a short amount of time and substantially reduce costs per data-point. The elimination of manual bench-work does not only minimize time and expenses, it also provides very homogenous datasets that facilitate comparison and the application of statistical methods. In the recent years, robotic systems have been successfully used to automate a number of important experiments in biopharmaceutical research such as screening and synthesis of drug candidates, genome wide RNAi screens, DNA sequencing and elucidation of protein-protein interactions. While highthroughput screens are almost exclusively carried out using some kind of automated laboratory equipment, the development of new methods and the in depth investigation of selected biological systems has not profited from the Aristolochic-acid-A benefits of automation to the same extent yet. Implementing a protocol on an automated system can be a tedious and time Lomefloxacin consuming task, and in a setting with constantly changing experimental procedures, the time needed for adapting programs often renders lab automation systems unattractive. In order to be usable for changing experimental setups in a science lab, they have to be flexible and must provide more benefits than just a simple reduction of repetitive pipetting work. One such benefit can lie in the ability of a computer-controlled lab-automation-system to keep track of sample identities and reagent volumes. This allows the use of complicated, computer generated, experimental designs described by hundreds of decimal numbers that would be difficult or even impossible to implement manually. If data acquisition and analysis is integrated with experimental design and execution, the lab-automation-system can react to experimental outcomes immediately after the measurement by modifying experimental parameters and carrying out the additional experiments autonomously. As the connection between sample identities, experimental parameters and measurement results is retained during the whole process, data-analysis and interpretation is greatly facilitated.