In-line digital holographic microscopy for automated QC and process control in cell therapy manufacturing

"Recent advances in cell therapy and immunotherapy are changing the face of modern medicine. In particular a new type of treatment -- CAR-T therapy, made from the patient's own immune cells -- is offering new hope to cancer patients. The drawback of these treatments is that they are extraordinarily expensive to produce using current methods and hence are unaffordable to public healthcare systems.

Automation is key to making cell therapy manufacturing more efficient and more affordable. One factor holding back progress in this area is that current technologies for process control and monitoring are either inadequte or involve a high level of manual input.

The aim of this project is to develop a new type of in-line measurement system that uses the power of digital holographic microscopy to image cells in 3D directly within a bioreactor system. Machine learning software will then interpret the images to generate a rich set of measurements that can be used to optimise the speed and quality of the process in real time.

Developing this technology will give UK startups Oxford MEStar and See-Through Scientific a world-beating competitive edge in the rapidly growing CAR-T manufacturing market."