Cytiva, a global life sciences company, and Nucleus Biologics LLC, “The Cell Performance Company,” have signed a collaboration agreement on custom media formulation and fulfillment solutions for the cell and gene therapy industry.
 
Utilizing Nucleus Biologics’ proprietary platform, Cytiva customers will have access to XURI Media AI Guide, an artificial intelligence platform for optimizing cell culture formulations, and XURI Media Designer System, a cell media configurator that enables customization of cell culture media while maintaining formulation ownership, in addition to ordering “off-the-shelf” cell culture media. Access to these platforms will accelerate the development of cellular therapies by making custom cell media available early during process development and simplifying downstream scale up.
 
Cell culture media is a critical component for bringing cell and gene therapies to market. Catarina Flyborg, vice president, Cell and Gene Therapy , says, “One of Cytiva’s strengths is our ability to collaborate with other organizations to bring our customers the most innovative solutions. Our collaboration with Nucleus Biologics is a primary example of this. Together, we will provide our customers with solutions that will accelerate the development of cell and gene therapies.”
 
Cell and gene therapy manufacturers have typically relied on off-the-shelf cell culture media. Owning formulas and having access to a scalable custom media supply is a paradigm shift in cell therapy manufacturing and simplifies the development and commercialization processes.
 
David Sheehan, president and CEO, Nucleus Biologics, says, “Our collaboration with Cytiva will usher in a new era of customization of media for cell and gene therapies. Our innovative products and expertise in small lot manufacturing combined with Cytiva’s quality, industry experience, and impressive reputation will help scientists speed the time from discovery to cure.”
 
There were 1,320 industry sponsored and 1,328 non-industry sponsored regenerative and advanced therapy trials underway worldwide during the first half of 2021. By 2026, forecasts predict that there will 3,100 unique therapies in development creating an immediate need to provide customers with an option for cell culture media that is optimized to their drug’s quality attributes