Unlocking the Potential of Cell Therapy: In Conversation with Dr. Yaron Silberberg

About Dr. Yaron Silberberg

Dr. Yaron Silberberg, Director at CELLiST Solution Center, known for his strategic vision in optimizing cell line development and scaling up manufacturing processes, holds expertise in cell culture technologies and bioprocess development. With a robust background in biotechnology and life sciences, he is leading the center in advancing innovative cell therapy and biologics production solutions. His leadership in integrating advanced methodologies and fostering collaborative research has been pivotal in enhancing CELLiST's capabilities to deliver cutting-edge solutions to the biotech industry.

Pharma Now: Welcome Dr. Yaron from Ajinomoto to Pharma Now. He's the Solution Center Director. He has done an excellent job setting up the solution centers in India, and most recently, he set up one in Ahmedabad. Today, we are interested in understanding more about Ajinomoto and the innovative work you're doing in media creation for cell culture. Can you tell us more about it?

Dr. Yaron: Okay, well, thank you for inviting me for the interview, first of all. At Ajinomoto, a huge company involved in many areas, our subsidiary, Cellist Korea, specializes in cell culture media manufacturing, development, customization, and bioprocess optimization for our customers. We established our solution centers in Korea five or six years ago, followed by another one in Shanghai, China, two years ago. This will be our third solution center, which we call the CSC: Cellist Solution Center.

Cellist is the name of our brand, our media. The solution center in India will open next month, in August, here in Ahmedabad. We have a fully equipped lab with cutting-edge equipment for bioprocessing, from bioreactors to downstream analysis and protein analysis—everything biopharma companies need to optimize cell culture media and processes. We aim to connect with many biopharma companies in India, as we have done in Korea, Japan, and the US. For example, we receive cell lines from our customers and then optimize our products for those cell lines to help them improve and scale up their processes.

Mr. Ravindra: Thank you for that comprehensive overview, Dr. Yaron. It’s exciting to hear about CELLiST’s expansion and the upcoming launch of the new solution center in India. Can we delve deeper into Cellist as a brand? What exactly do you do, and what are your products? And How does it help biopharma companies?

Dr. Yaron: Our product is cell culture media. It's a chemically defined media for mammalian cell lines, including CHO cell lines and HEK 293 cell lines, used for the production of biologics, vaccines, and gene therapy such as AAV. Our media covers various processes, including fed-batch and perfusion systems.

For manufacturing biologics or biosimilars, you need nutrients for the cells. Our company leverages over 100 years of knowledge in amino acid production and science from Ajinomoto. This knowledge is applied to our product, which contains more than 60-70 components, including amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and metals. Finding the optimal composition and balance among these components is a complex task. We use traditional wet experiments (DOE) and cutting-edge techniques like AI, machine learning, and multi-omics mechanistic models to tailor our media specifically to our customers' cell lines. We also continuously improve our catalogue products.

Pharma Now: That's fascinating, Dr. Yaron, especially how you combine amino acid science expertise with AI and machine learning. So, do you see AI and ML becoming a primary focus for enhancing your product solutions? In your opinion, how much productivity can biopharma companies enhance?

Dr. Yaron: It's a good question. These days, AI and machine learning are integral, even for upstream and media solutions and productivity depends on the cell line and the customer pipeline. Most biologics and biosimilars, such as anti-cancer drugs and antibodies, rely heavily on productivity. Starting from less than 1 gram to 2 grams per liter of protein, we can double or even triple productivity using our tools. We have cases with some Japanese companies, like Chugai Pharmaceuticals and Daiichi Sankyo, where we've tripled productivity, essentially tripling profit.

Pharma Now: That's remarkable, Dr. Yaron. Tripling productivity is a huge achievement. I also look forward to visiting the new lab set up in Ahmedabad, which I’ve heard is a state-of-the-art facility. What are your priorities in India for this lab?

Dr. Yaron: First, I want to credit our local collaborators and colleagues working hard to establish the lab. We've hired several scientists and I'm here for a few months to assist in setting it up. This lab will be fully equipped and staffed by professionals who will work closely with our customers. We aim to produce specific products for them and stay involved for the long term, helping them scale up and troubleshoot any process issues.

Pharma Now: That sounds like an exciting step forward, Dr. Yaron, especially with the local team and lab setup to support long-term customer relationships. What opportunities do you see in the Indian market for Cellist? What are your views on the current opportunities?

Dr. Yaron: The market in India is growing exponentially, unlike in America and Europe. Many biopharma and CDMO companies are evolving rapidly here. There is significant production, manufacturing, and R&D happening in India, pushing forward both development and manufacturing.

Pharma Now: That’s exciting news! What new innovations can we expect from you and Cellist?

Dr. Yaron: We are developing new products for different modalities, including gene therapy-specific media for high productivity of AAV gene therapy production and products for perfusion systems. We're also focusing on machine learning and mechanistic models to predict optimal culture conditions and media compositions, aiming to maximize productivity and reduce time to market.

Pharma Now: That's really wonderful, Dr. Yaron. I wish you the best of luck with your initiatives in India. It was great chatting with you and understanding the priorities of Cellist. Thank you for joining us on Pharma Now.

Dr. Yaron: Thank you. Nice to meet you too.