Cell2Sell: commercial scale next generation platform for allogeneic stem cell production

A factory-style production line for stem cells is being built to manufacture living therapies at commercial scale, targeting stroke, limb-threatening artery disease, and a form of blindness. This matters because advanced stem-cell therapies currently exist but are difficult to produce in the large, consistent batches needed for routine hospital use. The UK’s medicines manufacturing taskforce has flagged industrialisation as the critical bottleneck holding back these treatments from reaching patients. The project will develop a validated, regulatory-compliant manufacturing process—known as cGMP—that can supply clinical trials and eventual commercial markets. If successful, the platform could transform how stem-cell therapies are made, shifting from bespoke lab-scale production to reliable, repeatable manufacturing. This would directly affect patients with conditions that currently have few treatment options: stroke survivors, people with critical limb ischaemia at risk of amputation, and those with retinitis pigmentosa facing progressive vision loss. Wider benefits include reduced social-care costs, new skilled jobs in the UK, and strengthened domestic capacity to manufacture advanced therapies—a sector the government has identified as strategically important. The work is applied, not fundamental science; its goal is a practical, scalable manufacturing solution.