Cellular Origins, Fresenius Kabi integrate robotics for cell therapy manufacturing

Cellular Origins, a Cambridge, UK-based company focused on robotic manufacturing platforms for cell and gene therapies, and Fresenius Kabi, a global healthcare company based in Germany, have completed the first phase of a collaboration to scale cell and gene therapy manufacturing through robotic automation.

Cellular Origins said the latest development marks the successful digital and physical integration of Fresenius Kabi’s Cue cell processing system into its Constellation robotic manufacturing platform. 

According to the announcement, the integration enables robotic-operated cell processing designed to reduce manual intervention while maintaining existing biological workflows. The work follows an agreement signed in October 2024 and included studies using human T cells, which confirmed that the Cue system could reliably execute complex workflows when operated within the robotic platform.

“It has been widely known that manufacturing costs and variability are major challenges to the widespread adoption of cell and gene therapies,” Cellular Origins CEO Edwin Stone said in a statement. “Reducing manual touchpoints is an important part of supporting more consistent and scalable manufacturing processes.”

Christian Hauer, president of medtech at Fresenius Kabi, stated that the milestone demonstrates how robotic automation can improve precision, efficiency, and reliability while reducing manual labor in established workflows.

The full robotic automation is intended to reduce variability, lower costs, and enable a fully digital chain of custody, supporting both clinical and commercial-scale manufacturing. The next phase of the collaboration will focus on scaling production and integrating the Constellation platform into Fresenius Kabi’s broader cell therapy technology portfolio, including its Lovo cell processing system.

Cellular Origins recently raised $40 million to expand development and deployment of its Constellation platform, supporting commercial operations, integration of additional unit operations, and manufacturing infrastructure. 

Fresenius Kabi announced last week a separate strategic development agreement with TQ Therapeutics to integrate affinity-based cell isolation technology into its Cue system to support faster, more scalable T-cell processing.