Consortium Forms to Develop Fully Automated Robotics CGT Manufacturing Platform
With a grant of £1 million from Innovate UK, Cellular Origins, the CGT Catapult, and Resolution Therapeutics will work together to create a fully automated, scalable cell therapy manufacturing platform.
A consortium aimed at delivering a fully automated cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing platform has been formed by Cellular Origins, the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult), and Resolution Therapeutics. The project, which was announced in a July 11, 2025 press release (1), has already been awarded a cross-industry Smart Grant of £1 million from the U.K.’s national innovation agency, Innovate UK.
Expected to last for 20 months, the project will see the partners combine their respective expertise — covering robotic and digital technologies, manufacturing processes, operations and facilities management, therapy development, novel product processes, and patient delivery — to create a globally-unique, hyper-efficient, fully automated, scalable cell therapy manufacturing platform. Additionally, the consortium partners anticipate the collaboration to expand through future joint development and delivery capabilities.
“CGTs continue to deliver unparallelled 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, in the press release (1). “One of the most challenging problems to international delivery of these therapies to patients continues to be manufacturing. It is clear that robotics, AI [artificial intelligence], and digitization have now advanced to provide the required solution. The combination of three U.K. 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.”
“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,” said Edwin Stone, CEO, Cellular Origins, in the press release (1). “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. 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.”
The hardware and software of Cellular Origin’s robotic manufacturing platform, Constellation, will be fully integrated at CGT Catapult’s Digital and Automation Testbeds in the Stevenage Manufacturing Innovation Centre, U.K. — which provide a good manufacturing practice (GMP)-mirroring sandbox environment for de-risked and accelerated testing and adoption of next-gen technologies.
“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,” continued Stone, in the press release (1). “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.”
Resolution Therapeutics will be providing their expertise, advice and direction to ensure the adaptability of the platform for novel cell therapies, such as the company’s own Regenerative Macrophage Therapy (RMT) platform. With this corporate, clinical, and commercial expertise, the consortium will be able to create a route map and transform manual clinical-scale manufacturing into a fully automated, GMP-ready process at a scale required to meet areas of significant unmet need.
“The field of cell and gene therapy (CGT) continues to expand, delivering an increasing range of innovative platforms with the potential to transform patient outcomes—such as our RMT platform,” added Dr. Amir Hefni, Chief Executive Officer of Resolution Therapeutics, in the press release (1). “Our [RMT] program is now in the clinic. Our lead asset, RTX001, is currently in Phase I/II studies for the treatment of end-stage liver disease, with additional programs in development for a number of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, including graft-versus-host disease and lung fibrosis. We are also collaborating with the CGT Catapult and Cellular Origins to leverage advanced automated robotics technology. This partnership will enable the scalable and cost-efficient manufacturing of next-generation CGTs, ensuring greater patient access to our therapies.”
Reference
Cellular Origins. Cellular Origins, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and Resolution Therapeutics Form Consortium to Deliver Fully Automated Robotics CGT Manufacturing Platform. Press Release, July 11, 2025.