Invitria, Inc. has joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) as an industry partner. CMaT is a consortium of universities, companies, and clinical collaborators that 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.

“InVitria is proud to join CMaT and contribute to the advancement of safe, scalable cell therapies," said Scott Deeter, CEO of InVitria. "InVitria develops animal-origin-free recombinant proteins and supplements that help researchers and manufacturers move away from blood- and animal-derived materials. Components like our recombinant albumin and transferrin are designed to support consistent cell growth and expansion across cell types relevant to this community, including MSCs, T cells, NK cells, and iPSCs. As the field works toward reproducible, large-scale manufacturing, removing undefined animal-derived materials is a practical step toward the consistency and supply chain reliability that cell therapy production requires. We look forward to collaborating with CMaT's academic and industry partners to better understand how defined, recombinant components support cell health and therapeutic outcomes."

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 Invitria, Inc. to this new initiative,” said Johnna Temenoff, 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.