Cellular Origins and Fresenius Kabi have completed the first phase of their collaboration to integrate advanced robotic systems for the manufacture of cell and gene therapies (CGTs). The milestone involved the digital and physical integration of Fresenius Kabi’s Cue Cell Processing System into Cellular Origins’ Constellation robotic manufacturing platform.

The integration is intended to support end-to-end automation of cell processing, reducing manual intervention while maintaining biological process integrity. Initial studies using human T cells confirmed that the Cue system can execute complex workflows reliably within the integrated platform.

Edwin Stone, ceo of Cellular Origins, said: “It has been widely known that manufacturing costs and variability are major challenges to the widespread adoption of cell and gene therapies. These challenges have limited broader access to advanced therapies. Reducing manual touchpoints is an important part of supporting more consistent and scalable manufacturing processes. Cellular Origins is forming strong relationships with central companies like Fresenius Kabi to enable the CGT industry to robotically automate whilst maintaining its existing processes. Achieving this milestone within 12 months reflects the strong technical alignment between the teams and supports our progress toward future system development, ultimately helping to enable broader patient access to advanced therapies.”

Christian Hauer, president medtech at Fresenius Kabi, said: “At Fresenius Kabi we are driving innovation in cell and gene therapy manufacturing by embedding robotic automation into our Cell Therapy Technologies. This milestone demonstrates how automated precision, efficiency, and reliability can improve processes and established workflows, reduce manual labour, and help make advanced therapies more accessible to patients worldwide.”

The completion of this first phase reflects early-stage technical progress rather than clinical or commercial readiness. Future stages of the collaboration will focus on scaling manufacturing for clinical and commercial use and integrating Constellation into Fresenius Kabi’s wider Cell Therapy Technologies portfolio, including the Lovo Cell Processing System.

Cellular Origins said its approach allows CGT developers and manufacturers to adopt the system without redesigning existing workflows, maintaining consistency while enabling robotic automation. Fully automated processes may reduce cost, variability, and human error, while providing a digital chain of custody and the potential for process optimisation.