​Pioneering the future of cell culture with “CellTune”

On September 4, 2024, Shimadzu Corporation released “CellTune,” a cell culture optimization support software jointly developed with Epistra. CellTune is an innovative software that uses AI to select optimal cell culture conditions based on data from analyzing culture supernatants with a liquid chromatography mass spectrometer. We spoke with Takashi Suzuki, Group Manager of the Cell Business Unit, Analytical and Measurement Division, Shimadzu Corporation, who led the joint development project, about the background of the joint development and the future of cell culture experiments created by analytical instruments and AI.

Pioneering the cell business with advanced analytical technology

— First, please tell us about your department and job.

I belong to the Cell Business Unit in the Analytical Measurement Division of Shimadzu Corporation. As our company focuses on the healthcare field, we are focusing on cells, which will become increasingly important in the future, and are working to “create the technologies and businesses required for future cell culture while utilizing Shimadzu’s advanced analytical measurement technology.”

—I see. So the “cell culture profiling” that is the premise of CellTune is one such initiative.
Could you please tell us more about cell culture profiling?

“Cell Culture Profiling” is a method package for Shimadzu’s high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometer. By analyzing culture supernatant, it is possible to measure 144 components contained therein, including amino acids, vitamins, nucleosides, and metabolites secreted from cells, in just 20 minutes.

Another major feature is that the measurement targets are culture supernatant components, so cells are not destroyed or damaged.

There is a lot of data available, but we don’t know how to use it.

—If you can quickly determine the components contained in the culture supernatant, you can understand the (metabolic) state of the cells in real time, and based on that, users can efficiently decide on the next action to take.

Yes. That is basically correct. However, while a lot of data is available, to extract the truly necessary information and decide on the next action, advanced data analysis techniques based on an understanding of the flow of biology research and development are required. Users in the biology field are not necessarily experts in data analysis, so there was a gap there.

In fact, I heard a lot of people say , “We’re getting interesting data, but what should we do next?” I also realized that in order to accelerate research and development in this field, it is not enough to simply provide highly accurate analytical and measurement means; we need to provide users with what they truly need more directly.

When I came across Epistra’s solution, I thought, “This is it!”

We were struggling with these issues and unable to find a way to resolve them, which left us feeling frustrated. But then, by chance, we attended an internal meeting where Mr. Ozawa from Epistra was giving a technology introduction. When we heard the details for the first time, we intuitively realized that this was exactly what we needed at the time.

…What users primarily want to do is to build a high-quality, highly productive cell culture process for producing pharmaceuticals and useful substances, and analysis of metabolic components and data is just part of that process.

We thought that by combining “Cell Culture Profiling” with “Epistra Accelerate,” we would be able to extract important information from the data and use it to find optimal culture conditions in a seamless process, thereby providing greater value to users.

When I asked him later, I found out that Mr. Ozawa had also heard about “cell culture profiling” before approaching our company, and now I think we were in love with each other. Perhaps it was fate that I happened to attend a meeting with Mr. Ozawa (laughs).

(Ozawa) That’s right. If AI is a fish, then data is like water. AI can only be utilized if there is data. We were searching for a solution, thinking that if we could estimate the health of cells from cell analysis data, we could find better culture conditions more efficiently, and that’s how we discovered “cell culture profiling.”

I remember that after I introduced myself, Mr. Ozawa’s first words were, “I’ve always wanted to meet you.”

Right: Takashi Suzuki, Shimadzu Corporation

Left: Yosuke Ozawa, CEO of Epistra Inc.

Technologies necessary for the future bioindustry
We wanted to provide it earlier than anywhere else.

-How did things progress after that?

We thought that the efficiency of culturing condition investigation by the solution that combines “cell culture profiling” with “Epistra Accelerate” would be a necessary technology for future research and development in the bioindustry. Therefore, we wanted to bring it to the market before anyone else, and set a goal of releasing it in two years ( Press release in February 2022 ).

In the first year, we conducted proof-of-concept experiments to verify whether the combination would truly produce the expected results, and in the second year we carried out joint development.

– Considering the conditions (the complexity of the development target and collaboration between a large corporation and a startup), two years seems like a short time, but did the proof-of-concept experiments and joint development proceed Yes. Of course, there were many challenges, but we had a common goal of “providing it faster than anyone else,” so we worked together to overcome each challenge one by one. Also, we were able to develop a prototype of CellTune in the first year, so I think there was less rework in the later stages of commercialization.

Our Cell Business Unit is unusual among large companies in that we approach our work with a startup-like mindset. The Epistra team is also a startup and has the same enthusiasm, so we were on the same wavelength, which made the development go smoothly.

As their many achievements show, the people at Epistra not only have outstanding technical skills, but also specialized biology knowledge and excellent communication skills. There were fewer problems (such as miscommunication) that typically occur in collaborative development, and software specifications and other matters were determined smoothly, which ultimately led to the software being developed in a short period of time

-It’s been just over a month since the release, what kind of reaction have you had?

As expected, we have received a great response. All tickets for the Biotechnology Society lunch seminar were sold out by 9am, just after registration began.

What surprised me was the reaction from customers who have “cell culture profiling.” There were many more positive reactions than I expected, and they are actually considering purchasing the solution.

CellTune has the potential to revolutionize the industry

—It seems like a lot of people are interested in CellTune, but is there anything you expect from them when they actually use it?

First of all, I would like as many people as possible to actually get their hands on it.

If you already have a Shimadzu high-performance liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer, you can use it just by installing the software. Even if you don’t have one, Shimadzu Techno Research offers a paid contract service, so you can send us the analysis results just by sending us a sample.

—What effect of CellTune are you most looking forward to?

What we felt through the proof-of-concept experiment was that there are many factors that must be considered when optimizing culture conditions, and the experimental conditions are complex and extensive. By incorporating AI optimized for “cell culture profiling,” the search for optimal cell culture conditions can be made more efficient through appropriate data acquisition methods and appropriate data analysis.

By using “CellTune,” we hope people will realize that optimizing with AI is more efficient than analyzing and planning experiments by hand.

To that end, Shimadzu and Epistra will provide thorough support even after the introduction of CellTune. Through these products and support, we hope to allow many people to experience the effects of optimizing experiments using AI and accumulate success stories.

AI and data will revolutionize the new era of experiments

—Please tell us about your future prospects

In the future, we will continue to evolve along two axes: “further improving the functionality of CellTune” and “providing total solutions.”

“Enhancing CellTune’s functionality” is not about being satisfied with the current product, but rather about evolving it into something even better. Specifically, this means increasing the number of measurement items, such as measuring trace metal ions in the culture medium, and acquiring and integrating other information, such as information on cell morphology. Integrating multiple types of measurement data allows for a more accurate and detailed understanding of the cell state. This will further increase the efficiency of users’ cell culture condition investigations, and will also contribute greatly to improving material production volume and quality.

In addition, in terms of “provision of total solutions,” we plan to launch a service (recurring business) that provides optimized culture media based on data obtained through “cell culture profiling” and “CellTune” in fiscal 2024. In the future, we would like to continue development toward providing total solutions that reduce the burden on customers, such as developing a culture medium preparation system and an autonomous experimental system (Autonomous Lab) that automatically and consistently plans and executes experiments, and optimizes them based on the results. If this technology evolves, it will be possible to significantly reduce the time and effort that researchers spend on experiments, accelerating research and development.

We are trying to fundamentally change the cell culture optimization process that researchers have been spending time and effort on by using the power of AI and data. “CellTune” is just the beginning. Going forward, we will provide powerful support tools to unleash the potential of researchers and pave the way for the future of cell culture. In collaboration with Epistra and our group companies, we will continue to challenge ourselves to innovate industry standards and raise the speed of research to the next stage.

Shimadzu Corporation

Analytical and Measuring Instruments Division Cell Business Unit Group Manager

Mr. Takashi Suzuki