Collaboration to advance automated regulatory T-cell manufacturing

Taiwan Bio Therapeutics and Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies have partnered to advance automated manufacturing of regulatory T-cells (Tregs), a rare immune cell type with potential to prevent organ transplant rejection. The collaboration integrates Taiwan Bio’s Phase 2 Treg platform with Terumo BCT’s automated 3-in-1 workflow, moving from labour-intensive processes toward scalable, standardised production.

Tregs, a Nobel Prize-winning discovery, are notoriously difficult to expand and maintain. By automating activation, viral transduction, and expansion in a single closed system, the teams aim to reduce variability, shorten production cycles, and improve accessibility for clinical studies.

“This collaboration marks a significant step toward reliable and scalable Treg production,” said Wenyan Leong, Terumo BCT’s APAC Director.

The initiative will support Taiwan Bio’s TRK-001 program and future engineered Treg candidates, with the goal of advancing at least one therapy toward clinical trial applications in the region.

The approach builds on peer-reviewed work [1] published last year in Cytotherapy demonstrating the feasibility of integrated, automated Treg production, highlighting a significant step forward in cell therapy manufacturing in Asia.

More information online

1. A 3-in-1 integrated automated platform for rapid CAR-T cell manufacturing: activation, transduction, and expansion in a hollow-fiber system published in Cytotherapy. 2025;27(8):1001-1012. doi:10.1016/j.jcyt.2025.05.006