QIAGEN has announced the 4,000th placement of its QIAcube Connect instrument, marking a major milestone in advancing laboratory automation for sample processing across life sciences and diagnostics.
This achievement reflects the strong global adoption of QIAGEN’s automation technologies — with nearly 13,000 QIAcube instruments installed worldwide since launch, and over 29,900 sample technology instruments placed since 2019, underscoring the widespread trust in QIAGEN’s sample preparation systems.
The QIAcube enables laboratories to seamlessly transition from manual to automated workflows without the need for revalidation. By fully automating QIAGEN’s trusted spin-column kits, the platform delivers consistent efficiency, reliability, and reproducibility across labs of varying capacities.
Building on the success of the original QIAcube, QIAcube Connect takes automation into the digital era. It supports over 80 QIAGEN kits and 140 standard protocols, with the potential to customize beyond 3,000 workflows. Enhanced features include connectivity, remote monitoring, automated decontamination, pre-run validation, and integration with the QIAsphere platform.
“QIAcube Connect has become an indispensable tool in thousands of laboratories worldwide,” said Justus Krause-Harder, Vice President and Head of Molecular Tools & Oncology at QIAGEN. “Our continued investment in automation is driven by customers who rely on QIAGEN to deliver the speed, reliability and standardization their work demands. We will strengthen this offering with the upcoming launches of new automation systems and continue to build our leadership in this important area.”
The QIAcube family forms part of QIAGEN’s wider portfolio of automated nucleic acid extraction solutions — including QIAsymphony and EZ2 Connect — which together address laboratory needs ranging from individual researchers to high-throughput clinical testing. These systems have become vital tools across academia, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and applied testing, enabling scientists to generate high-quality molecular insights efficiently.
Looking Ahead: New Automation Systems Set for 2025–2026
To meet the rising demand for scalable, connected automation, QIAGEN plans to launch three new systems in 2025 and 2026:
QIAsymphony Connect: The next-generation successor to QIAsymphony, designed for high-volume labs with enhanced throughput (up to 96 samples per run), improved connectivity, and digital performance monitoring — ideal for oncology, infectious disease, and molecular diagnostics.
QIAsprint: A high-throughput automation platform capable of handling 192 samples per run with minimal hands-on time, catering to core facilities and biopharma production environments.
QIAmini: A compact, benchtop solution tailored for smaller research labs transitioning from manual workflows, offering cost-effective, walk-away automation and reproducibility.
Each of these upcoming instruments will integrate with QIAsphere, QIAGEN’s digital ecosystem for remote device management, maintenance scheduling, and performance tracking across multiple instruments and locations — reinforcing QIAGEN’s vision of connected automation for every laboratory scale.
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