High operator mental load, communication lag and risk of inadvertent exposure to delicate laboratory equipment can often constrain safe remote manipulation of simulated hazardous biological and chemical materials. This paper introduces a software-defined teleoperation system that considers a 4-degree of freedom (4-DOF) laboratory manipulator a peripheral, which is remotely controlled over a high-fidelity digital twin running on a workstation. Its low-level firmware is then abstracted into a kinematic i.e. intelligence layer which provides goal-oriented Cartesian control and integrates a fixed L -bend elbow geometry, designed to work within deep laboratory vessels. A predictive state-vector model hides network jitter with a forecasting of the robot configuration followed by the updating the digital twin at 60 Hz and a software-defined safety envelope that monitors collisions in advance and prevents executing movements. The framework in a user study in which 20 non-expert operators completed simulated vial-handling tasks had reduced completion times, reduced subjective mental effort, and fewer safety incidents than in the process of conventional joint-space teleoperation.