Multiply Labs, a robotics company developing automated manufacturing systems to produce individualized drugs, and GenScript Biotech Corporation, a provider of life-science research tools and services, have announced a strategic partnership around the automation of the cell isolation phase of cell therapy manufacturing, reducing the complexity of this laborious process.
 
The current method of performing cell isolation using immunomagnetic beads manually is complex and time-consuming. By utilizing Multiply Labs’ cell therapy robotic cluster and GenScript’s GMP-grade CytoSinct 1000 cell isolation solution, capable of isolating up to 120X10^9 total cells within a single hour, this collaboration will introduce the first fully automated solution for bead-based cell isolation. Importantly, this automation technology will not require cell therapy manufacturers to make substantial modifications to their original manufacturing processes.
 
This advancement will mitigate the risk of human error while simultaneously boosting cell therapy output. Once this part of the process can be run without human intervention, manufacturing operators and process scientists will be free to oversee the production of more therapies at once, without being tied down in the delicate, tedious, and mission-critical manual tasks involved in the traditional manufacturing process. Automation in this time-consuming area of the process will therefore drive significant benefits around efficiency and ultimately support the scalability of cell therapies.
 
“Our collaboration with Multiply Labs marks a significant advancement in personalized medicine and the potential impact of cell therapies,” said Ray Chen, PhD, President of Life Science Group at GenScript. “By automating our industry-leading solution, we can dramatically increase productivity and scale operations to unprecedented levels.”
 
“We’re thrilled to partner with GenScript to enhance a critical aspect of the cell therapy process through automation,” said Fred Parietti, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of Multiply Labs. “This collaboration advances our goal of a fully automated, end-to-end cell therapy manufacturing process, reducing costs and expanding patient access to life-changing treatments.”
 
This news comes months after Multiply Labs automated Thermo Fischer’s cell therapy instruments.