Cellular Origins, a TTP company that prioritizes the scalable, robotic production of cell and gene therapies (CGTs), the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult), a tech organization concentrating on growth of the CGT sector, and Resolution Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharma company that utilities regenerative macrophage therapy to for the treatment of fibrotic and inflammatory diseases, have created a consortium.1
The TTP company has already completed pre-activity for the project by installing the first Constellation system at the CGT Catapult’s Digital and Automation Testbeds in Stevenage, UK. The intention is for full market supply and application of the automated robotics manufacturing platform for CGT developers, integrating known and proven instrumentation from trusted third-party suppliers with minimum process change, within Cellular Origins’ workstations and factory installations.
Innovate UK grant fuels breakthrough in CGT robotics and automation
The consortium is being powered by a cross-industry Smart Grant of $1.34 million (GBP 1 million) from Innovate UK, the UK's national innovation agency.
This group will be focused on deploying novel technologies to launch a fully automated, scalable, and hyper-efficient cell therapy manufacturing platform on a global scale, which is considered—according to the involved parties—the first of its kind. The project launched on July 1 and will run for 20 months.
Key Takeaways
- Cellular Origins, CGT Catapult, and Resolution Therapeutics formed a consortium backed by an Innovate UK grant to build a fully automated, scalable CGT manufacturing platform.
The project will integrate Cellular Origins’ Constellation system at CGT Catapult’s Stevenage Testbeds to fast-track CGT manufacturing efficiency using robotics and AI. - By replacing manual methods with advanced automation, the consortium aims to address the manufacturing shortfall that limits CGT availability to just 7% of eligible patients globally.
Addressing the global CGT manufacturing gap
Given the partners’ unique backgrounds, they’ll be leveraging their experience spanning robotic and digital technologies, manufacturing processes, operations and facilities management, therapy development, innovative product workflows, and patient delivery. Also in the works are talks of expanding their agreement via future joint development efforts. Autolomous and ScaleReady, will be assisting in these efforts.
“Despite the incredible therapeutic performance of cell therapies, therapy development has greatly outpaced the ability for these treatments to be manufactured in sufficient quantities to reach all eligible patients. Manual manufacturing has only been able to be scaled up to deliver a few thousand patient doses per year. The CGT sector is currently only capable of manufacturing sufficient doses to treat less than 7% of eligible patients globally,” said Edwin Stone, CEO, Cellular Origins. “To deliver therapies to the patients that need them requires fully automated manufacturing of the type that has revolutionized other high-tech manufacturing. This requires solving the cell therapy specific technology challenges that allow the adoption of advanced robotics and AI into cell therapy manufacturing.
“This partnership with the CGT Catapult and Resolution Therapeutics, and the funding by Innovate UK, will deliver the most advanced, fully tested, fully automated robotically operated CGT manufacturing platform to the market. Cellular Origins’ already established network of partnerships, most recently added to with our collaborations with Cytiva, Fresenius Kabi, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, gives this specific consortium access to proven robotically automated manufacturing technology.”
Constellation platform to power CGT manufacturing
The project is expected to produce a full adoption of the hardware and software of Constellation, Cellular Origins’ proprietary CGT robotic manufacturing platform, at the CGT Catapult’s Digital and Automation Testbeds in the Stevenage Manufacturing Innovation Centre in the UK. In terms of Resolution Therapeutics’ contributions, the developer will be supplying the corporate, clinical, and commercial knowledge from the perspective.
“CGTs continue to deliver unparalleled therapeutic efficacy and life-saving or transforming options for a plethora of patients with currently limited therapeutic options. There is an opportunity for the UK to lead innovation in this sector, and ensure patients have access to the therapies they need,” said Matthew Durdy, Chief Executive, CGT Catapult. “One of the most challenging problems to international delivery of these therapies to patients continues to be manufacturing. It is clear that robotics, AI and digitization have now advanced to provide the required solution. The combination of three UK leaders in their respective CGT sectors will result in the reduction of costs and increase in manufacturing efficiency and capacity required to bring transformative therapies to patients. The funding by Innovate UK will give further support to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of CGT development.”
Thermo Fisher partnership expands robotic capabilities
In other Cellular Origins news, the company recently formed a collaboration with Thermo Fisher to help tackle one of the challenges pertaining to automatic robotic manufacturing, the advancement of late-stage trials and commercial production.2 The physicial company involves converting Thermo’s products to communicate with its robotic platform. Software has also been integrated of software into the digital layer.
References
1. Cellular Origins, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and Resolution Therapeutics form consortium to deliver fully automated robotics CGT manufacturing platform. Cellular Origins. July 11, 2025. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://cellularorigins.com/resource/smart-grant-press-release/
2. Cellular Origins announces collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific to transform production output and labor requirements for CGT manufacturing using automated robotics manufacturing capabilities. Cellular Origins. June 17, 2025. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://cellularorigins.com/resource/cellular-origins-announces-collaboration-with-thermo-fisher-scientific/
