Karolinska Institutet and Cellply announce collaboration to advance NK cell-based therapy translational research with the VivaCyte platform

• As part of the collaboration, a VivaCyte platform developed by Cellply has been installed at Karolinska Institutet

• Partnership aims at finding new biomarkers for NK cell therapies, leveraging on a novel single-cell multiparametric analysis technique

BOLOGNA, Italy, and STOCKHOLM, Sweden; 12 May 2025: Karolinska Institutet and Cellply Srl today announced the start of a research collaboration aiming at advancing the development of immunotherapies and cell therapies based on the use of NK cells, by utilizing the novel VivaCyte platform launched on the market by Cellply in 2024.

The partnership will support the research of Assoc. Prof. Evren Alici, Principal Researcher and Group Leader at Karolinska Institutet, which is focused on the use of NK cells to develop treatments for multiple myeloma patients. To this aim, the VivaCyte system will be used to characterize the potency and phenotype of single NK cells at scale, through the single-cell multiparametric analysis capability of the VivaCyte technology, to advance the understanding of the mode of action of therapies utilizing NK cells and engagers and to determine new biomarkers for predicting clinical outcome on multiple myeloma patients.

The collaboration allows Cellply to develop and validate a new application of the VivaCyte platform to evaluate the links among surface markers expression and the functionality of immune cells, allowing also to quantify the activity of serial killer cells. The application is built on the Workflow 1 that Cellply launched on the market in 2024 for single-cell characterization of the interactions among immune cells and suspension target cells through a combined analysis of immune cell killing activity and immunophenotype.

Under the agreement, a VivaCyte unit has been successfully installed at the Karolinska Istitutet and researchers have been trained to run experiments and analyze the complex datasets generated by the instrument utilizing the analysis software provided as part of the platform.

Assoc. Prof. Evren Alici, , commented: “We are excited about the opportunity to have access to the novel platform that Cellply has recently developed. The VivaCyte technology will provide a unique perspective to our research team to understand how the complex machinery around NK cells works, also in presence of engagers. Our research has focused for years on targeting NK cells to exert a potent activity against tumor. Now, the VivaCyte system will uniquely help us easily identify the presence of potent serial killer cells in a quantitative way, while understanding the role of the various subpopulations of the overall effect on the patient”.

“We are proud to support Karolinska Institutet in its effort to develop NK-cell based therapeutics and to demonstrate the value of the VivaCyte instrument as a tool to advance translational research on these treatments”, said Massimo Bocchi, Chief Strategy Officer at Cellply. “Results of this collaboration could be beneficial to the community of cell therapy developers, by shedding light on the key factors that contribute to the potency and efficacy of these treatments, with applications ranging from the optimization of cell editing strategies and selection of the optimal cell populations during process development, to the identification of optimal donors for allogeneic therapies and the stratification of patients in autologous programs”.

About Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities. The vision of the institute is to advance knowledge about life and strive towards better health for all. Karolinska Institutet accounts for the single largest share of all academic medical research conducted in Sweden and offers the country’s broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet selects the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

About Cellply

Cellply is a biology-focused deep tech company developing tools to unravel the complexity of the immune system and enable rapid development of new immunotherapies and cell-based therapies with enhanced potency and persistence. Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, the team is creating state-of-the-art analytical solutions capable of robustly characterizing these exciting therapeutic modalities at single-cell resolution.  Cellply has combined patented microfluidic technology and AI-powered automated image analysis capability with comprehensive automation and dedicated software to create its flagship product VivaCyte^®. Today Cellply is focused on enhancing research and development of cell therapies. Tomorrow its ambition is to dramatically reduce cost and complexity of batch release and potency assays in quality control for these promising innovative therapies.

To find out more visit: cellply.com

Media contact: press@cellply.com