ChemT Biotechnology has joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT). CMaT is a consortium of universities, companies, and clinical collaborators brought together to develop transformative tools and technologies for the consistent, scalable and low-cost production of high-quality living therapeutic cells. The center, launched in 2017 with a $20 million investment from NSF, aims to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases and other disorders by enabling broad use of potentially curative therapies that utilize living cells – such as immune cells and stem cells – as “drugs.”  

“Joining CMaT is an important step for ChemT as we continue advancing AI-driven solutions for biomanufacturing,” said Jie Sun, CEO & Cofounder. Biomanufacturing still lacks predictable, tunable control over cell behaviour, limiting yield, quality, and scalability. ChemT Biotechnology takes a paradigm shifting approach. It has developed an AI-driven virtual cell platform, CelMo™, which builds foundation models of different cell types to predict cell states upon perturbation. Built on CelMo’s foundation layer are downstream applications including AI agents for cell engineering and de novo small-molecule design and generation to modulate cell behaviour. “We look forward to contributing to CMaT’s mission of enabling more scalable, consistent, and cost-effective manufacturing of high-quality advanced therapies”

To facilitate the widespread application of these cutting-edge emerging treatments, CMaT will develop robust and scalable technologies, innovative analytical tools, and engineering systems that will enable industry and clinical facilities to reproducibly manufacture efficient, safe and affordable cell-therapy products. The center will also develop improved models for a robust supply chain, storage and distribution system for these therapeutic cell products.

In addition to the consistent manufacture of  cell-based therapies, the public-private CMaT initiative will also help develop a skilled bio-manufacturing workforce through extensive education and training activities at the K-12, technical college, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels.

“We are pleased to welcome ChemT Biotechnology  to this new initiative,” said Johnna Temenoff, PhD., Director of CMaT. “The center will develop the technologies needed to use living cells in standardized therapies by clinicians to serve large numbers of patients worldwide. We are very excited about what this will mean to the world.”

The center includes major university partners – the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus – as well as affiliate partners such as the University of Pennsylvania, Emory University, the Morgridge Institute and University of Oregon. Additional international academic partners from Canada, Ireland, and Japan, as well as industry and the U.S. national laboratories, are critical collaborators in the effort.