Cellino and Matricelf Announce Global Collaboration to Scale Personalized Spinal Cord Injury Treatments

Cellino successfully manufactures and delivers autologous iPSC lines from four donors to Matricelf for groundbreaking neural tissue engineering

Cellino and Matricelf (TASE: MTLF) announced today a collaboration to accelerate the global biomanufacturing of personalized spinal cord injury treatments using Cellino’s Nebula™ technology combined with Matricelf’s breakthrough regenerative approach. This collaboration combines Cellino’s automated iPSC manufacturing with Matricelf’s double autologous 3D differentiation process, paving the way for scalable, patient-specific regenerative therapies.

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Image caption: Cellino generated iPSC transformed by Matricelf into functional neural tissue (Photo: Business Wire)

Nebula™, Cellino’s proprietary closed-cassette biomanufacturing system, is designed to produce high-quality induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) at scale with unparalleled consistency and sterility. This innovation allows for on-demand, contamination-free iPSC production, bringing regenerative medicine closer to real-world clinical application.

As a key milestone, Cellino has successfully manufactured and delivered autologous iPSC lines from four donors to Matricelf, a biotech company developing regenerative therapies for spinal cord injury. Matricelf’s approach integrates an extracellular matrix-based hydrogel derived from the patient’s own omentum, facilitating precise cell differentiation and tissue formation while eliminating the need for immunosuppression.

Matricelf has now transformed Cellino-generated iPSCs into functional neural tissues, demonstrating synchronized electrical activity—a hallmark of functional neural networks. Rigorous industry-standard assays confirmed key neural characteristics, including genetic and protein neural marker expression of engineered tissues with Cellino’s iPSCs, with results comparable to Matricelf’s own iPSC-derived tissues.

With the goal of redefining treatment paradigms for spinal cord injury, Matricelf plans to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) application next year to bring its autologous iPSC-derived therapy into clinical trials. This transformative approach addresses an urgent unmet need, potentially restoring function for millions of patients worldwide.

“Collaboration on this international scale is a vital step toward our vision of a fully autologous regenerative therapy for spinal cord injury,” said Gil Hakim, CEO of Matricelf. “Matricelf’s innovative platform, in combination with Cellino’s Nebula™ technology, is setting new standards in scalable patient-specific tissue engineering, bringing us closer to real-world applications of regenerative medicine.”

“The ability to produce high-quality, patient-specific iPSCs at scale is poised to revolutionize regenerative medicine,” said Marinna Madrid, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Cellino. “Our collaboration with Matricelf exemplifies how international collaboration can accelerate innovation and expand access to life-changing therapies.”

This collaboration highlights both companies' commitment to harnessing advanced technologies - ranging from AI-driven automation and high-throughput biomanufacturing to pioneering sophisticated neural tissue engineering to accelerate the commercialization of next-generation regenerative therapies for neurological diseases worldwide.

About Cellino

Cellino is a leader in advanced biomanufacturing technology, committed to making personalized cell, tissue, and organ replacements a reality for patients around the world. Learn more at cellinobio.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X.

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