Medra

Overview

Medra is a Physical AI scientist company founded by Michelle Lee. The company exited stealth in December 2025 after raising a $52M Series A, and organized the UNLOCK 2026 conference. Medra is already in production with Genentech, positioning itself among a cohort of autonomous biology companies — comparable in profile to Ginkgo Bioworks.

Medra's flagship facility, Medra Lab 1, is a 38,000 sq ft autonomous laboratory in San Francisco housing 100+ robots — the largest autonomous lab in the United States. In three years, Medra automated 65% of instruments at the facility, compared to 5% achieved by traditional automation over 20 years. The company projects reaching 85% automation within one additional year. Medra's hardware also powers Cultivarium's Work Cell Armadillo.