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Opentrons Formally Announces James Atwood as CEO

Atwood previously led Opentrons’ Robotics Business Unit since April 2023.

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By: Patrick Lavery

Content Marketing Editor

Opentrons Labworks has made public its promotion of James Atwood to the position of Chief Executive Officer. In announcing the move, Opentrons said Atwood has actually been serving as CEO since July 2025.

Opentrons is a laboratory robotics company that builds physical infrastructure for AI-driven autonomous science. Under that umbrella, the company has a Robotics Business Unit that Atwood had led since April 2023.

Atwood’s Experience and Expertise

In that capacity, Atwood supervised expansion of Opentrons’ installed base to more than 10,000 robotic systems. These were subsequently deployed across worldwide academic, biotech, and pharmaceutical laboratories.

As he formally begins his tenure as CEO, Atwood commented on the importance of AI to modern processes.

“AI can design molecules, predict protein structures, and model biological systems,” he said. “Turning those predictions into medicines still requires physical experiments—millions of them.”

Atwood emphasized that Opentrons’ work is focused on building infrastructure that directly connects AI to the wet lab.

In this environment, he said, experiments generate data making “models smarter and smarter, in less time and with higher fidelity.”

Myrtle Potter, Chair of the Board of Opentrons Labworks, applauded Atwood’s promotion. Potter said Atwood is well equipped to “link conceptual AI to the physical laboratory world.”

“Opentrons is already benefiting from James’ deep expertise in robotics, scaling global platforms, and commercializing new technologies,” Potter said.

Other Opentrons News

Previously, Opentrons disclosed a new, multi-year partnership which it announced in October 2025. This collaboration is with BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company). Together, BD and Opentrons will integrate robotic liquid-handling capabilities into BD single-cell multiomics instruments.

By doing this, the two companies can automate critical experimental steps to accelerate and scale disease research and drug development.

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