How the University of Chicago Science Incubator Uses AI to Run a Multi-Domain Lab With a One-Person Lab-Ops Team

A new lab with everything to document at once

A collaboration between the University of Chicago's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Portal Innovations, the UChicago Science Incubator opened in 2025 at Hyde Park Labs. The incubator supports life sciences, cleantech, battery tech, quantum, and AI companies all under one roof, with roughly 200 instruments on the floor.

The lab includes instruments from across five different scientific domains, including an Attune Flow Cytometer, a QuantStudio 5 PCR system, a Bluefors cryogenic measurement system for quantum work, and more.

For one Lab Operations Manager, the workload was untenable. Every instrument arrived with its own manual, its own set of passwords and contact details that had to be filed, stored, and made usable for member companies. The list only grew.

"I have to organize the lab, I have to start compiling our operation protocols, and I have to start doing all these things, and I need a way to get organized. I needed help in the lab."

Gaby Martinez Ramirez, PhD, Lab Operations Manager, UChicago Science Incubator

Writing one standard operating procedure by hand meant reading manuals that were often hundreds of pages, deciding what mattered for a user, drafting the standard operating procedures (SOPs), then testing it on the instrument. A single procedure could take Gaby about a week to complete.

From searching through a 100+ page manual to a step-by-step answer

Fortunately, there was a better solution being built down the street. Rayni was founded to solve the exact problems Gaby was facing. The company's AI-powered platform consolidates manuals and documentation into one searchable location.

For Gaby, this meant she could simply ask Rayni to build an SOP. What took weeks now took about two days, including revisions and testing.

"It has cut out all the unnecessary jargon that a manual has, and then put it together in a very simplistic form that tells you, hey, this is how you use the instrument."

Gaby, UChicago Science Incubator

Gaby does not treat the output as the last word. Every answer shows the source beside it.

"It gives you a suggestion, but it has the manual right next to it showing you where it extracted the information from."

Gaby, UChicago Science Incubator

The SOPs are split into types: operational SOPs for scientists using an instrument, maintenance SOPs for the lab-ops team with short checklists. For an unfamiliar instrument like a glove box, the platform helps users like Gaby see which values and steps matter.

A maintenance answer that immediately paid for itself

Faced with an expensive service contract for something as simple as an ice machine, Gaby asked Rayni if she could perform the maintenance in-house. The platform gave her a step-by-step answer.

"I asked [Rayni] to see what the maintenance was. It is pretty simple. I just have to take out all the ice, make sure it's clean, clean the filter. And I was like, oh, I wouldn't have known that."

Gaby, UChicago Science Incubator

That let her skip a service contract that would have cost on average $1,500 a year through an independent provider, or about $3,000 through the manufacturer.

Freeing up a one-person lab-ops team

The value Gaby points to is time. Building SOPs is routine work she would rather hand off.

"It allows me to focus on other things, not just writing an SOP for one instrument out of the 200 instruments that we have here."

Gaby, UChicago Science Incubator

She has since put the platform in the hands of a lab associate and an intern, who now do most of the SOP work, going deeper and reporting any gaps back to the Rayni team.

How can AI help a lab leader?

"No matter what your style is, I feel like I'm confident enough that we can find a way to use it. It may not be SOPs, it may not be maintenance, but there has to be at least one thing that we can all agree is helpful."

Gaby, UChicago Science Incubator

About the University of Chicago Science Incubator

Powered by Portal Innovations and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the UChicago Science Incubator provides early-stage life sciences, quantum, clean energy, and data science companies with access to state-of-the-art facilities and amenities, cutting-edge wet lab space and equipment, and seasoned management expertise. Located in Hyde Park Labs, a 300,000+ square-foot facility near the University of Chicago's main campus and medical center. Visit uchicagoscienceincubator.com for more information.

About Rayni, Inc.

Rayni builds AI for scientific instrument service and lab teams. The platform consolidates an organization's own manuals and documentation into one searchable place and grounds every answer in those first-source documents. Learn more at www.rayni.ai or reach out at [email protected].