Cellevate AB, Fraunhofer IBMT, and Omni Life Science (OLS) have been awarded a €1 million grant through the Eurostar program to support the development of large-scale production methods for induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

The three-year project will focus on validating Cellevate’s Cellevat3d nanofiber microcarriers within OLS bioreactors, with benchmarking against market standard processes.

Fraunhofer IBMT will contribute its expertise in applied stem cell research and biomedical engineering to design and conduct study protocols, while OLS will provide specialized knowledge in bioreactor technology and cell culture systems. The consortium aims to address a key bottleneck in scaling iPSC manufacturing, which is critical for advancing regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug discovery applications.

The iPSC market is projected to grow from $677 million in 2023 to $1.1 billion by 2030, driven by increasing demand for scalable, reliable cell sources capable of differentiating into a wide variety of cell types, including neurons and cardiomyocytes.

Commenting on the grant, Laura Chirica, CEO of Cellevate, said: “Human induced pluripotent stem cells exhibit significant potential for regenerative medical treatments due to their pluripotency and proliferation capacity. However, the large-scale production required for allogeneic therapies necessitates efficient and scalable culture systems. The newly launched Cellevat3d nanofiber microcarriers product, with their extremely large surface area and fast, three-dimensional scale-up potential, could solve the challenges for large-scale iPSC production in suspension bioreactor cultures.”

The consortium believes that developing scalable and efficient bioprocesses will be critical to unlocking the full therapeutic potential of iPSCs in the coming years.