Working together to advance cell manufacturing

CMaT NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies

Transforming the manufacture of cell-based therapeutics into a large-scale, lower-cost, reproducible, and high-quality engineered process, for broad industry and clinical use.
A partnership with the National
Cell Manufacturing Consortium

 

Spring 2025 Highlights

2025 NSF Site Visit

The CMaT site visit this year was held virtually in late April. During this half day event, a set of NSF program officers reviewed CMaT’s research and other pillars to assess the center's progress and make a recommendation regarding future funding for the Center. Over 70 attendees gathered from CMaT partner universities, CMaT industry members, and CMaT advisory boards. A “State of the Center” overview was provided by Director Temenoff, followed by presentations from each CMaT pillar. The presentations allowed for interactions between CMaT members and the NSF team, and highlighted the impressive scope and progress of CMaT’s research.  The day closed with meetings between CMaT’s industry members and NSF.  

Dr. Temenoff and the rest of the leadership extend a sincere thank-you to all the faculty, staff and advisory boards for their work and participation to make this a successful site visit. We also extend a special thanks to the NSF program officers for their insights and recommendations to further refine CMaT’s vision and goals as move into Year 9 of NSF funding.  

Towards sustainability: The Marcus Foundation Provides New Funding for CMaT-Related Research

A researcher in the Marcus Center of Excellence for Cell Biomanufacturing removes cultured cells from an incubator for further characterization and testing.

We are excited to announce that in March 2025, Georgia Tech received a groundbreaking 5-year award from the Marcus Foundation. This transformative $40 million endeavor, with a principal investment of $20 million from the Marcus Foundation and match pledge of $20 million from Georgia Tech, will support research in the area of cell characterization and automated manufacturing of cell therapies, and thus is a major step in CMaT’s sustainability plan. 

Student Spotlights

Congratulations to 2024 CMaT REU participant Christopher Smith on his recent selection for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)! Chris completed his REU research project in the lab of Dr. Mara Domenech with graduate mentor Carolina Rivera at UPRM. The focus of his summer research was Design and characterization of rigid and degradable substrates for the expansion of differentiated cartilage cells from MSCs. The NSF GRFP is a highly prestigious and competitive fellowship that supports exceptional graduate researchers across the U.S. A May 2025 graduate from the Biomedical Engineering program at the University of West Virginia, Chris will continue his academic career this fall in the Bioengineering doctoral program at Rice University. Congratulations, Chris!  

CMaT trainee Morgane Golan, a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Georgia, recently won the 2025 UGA Graduate School Engaged Scholarship by Graduate Students Award and the Excellence in Teaching Award. The Excellence in Teaching Award is the top teaching award for graduate students at UGA.