Thermo Fisher Scientific’s advanced cell therapy instruments, including the Thermo Scientific Heracell VIOS Automated Access CO2 Incubator and the Gibco Cell Therapy Systems (CTS) Rotea Counterflow Centrifugation System, have been integrated with Multiply Labs’ robotic technology, enabling them to be fully automated for cell therapy manufacturing.
 
The goal of this collaboration is to support reduced costs, accelerate production timelines and improve scalability, helping innovative cell therapies reach more patients.

Advantages Over Traditional Manual Manufacturing

With the automated Heracell VIOS Incubator, up to 18 products can be hosted in parallel when using G-Rex100M bioreactors. This is an increase over traditional manual manufacturing, where one or two G-Rex100M bioreactors are used in parallel in a single incubator. The ability to support 18 products at once per incubator signals future scalability, as with two automated incubators, manufacturers would be able to create 36 products at the same time and scale upwards from there as incubators are added.
 
Furthermore, by automating Thermo Fisher’s CTS Rotea Counterflow Centrifugation System, key manufacturing steps including upstream and downstream cell processing, can be performed automatically. Therefore, automation supports not only increased throughput but also lower labor cost, as these important processes can be executed by a single manufacturing operator. For comparison, traditional manual manufacturing processes typically require 4-8 operators. An end-to-end automated workflow using robotic technology only requires 400-500 sq ft of space compared to the 1000-2000 sq ft of space required for human-operated workflows.
 
Xavier De Mollerat Du Jeu, Senior Director of Research and Development at Thermo Fisher Scientific, said: “With so many groundbreaking cell therapies available or forthcoming for patients, we cannot afford to let manual processes reduce scalability and stand in the way of access. Not only are we taking our incubator partnership to the next level to deliver a fully-automated GMP product, but together we will engineer the automation of our latest-generation closed system centrifuge – an essential instrument for cell therapy manufacturing.”
 
Cell therapy innovators and CDMOs can benefit from this collaboration by integrating Thermo Fisher’s solutions while enjoying the advantages of automation, such as cost reduction and increased throughput.
 
Fred Parietti, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of Multiply Labs, remarked: “The goal is to establish a seamlessly automated, plug-and-play process that positively influences patient care. The ongoing partnership with Thermo Fisher plays a crucial role in turning this vision into reality, advancing the realization of cell therapy for the benefit of patients.”