Culture Biosciences Opens INTERPHEX 2025 with Launch of Cloud-Integrated Mobile Bioreactor

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Culture Biosciences, headquartered in South San Francisco, Calif., is announcing the launch of Stratyx 250, which the company said in a press release is the first mobile, cloud-integrated bioreactor that is designed to provide biotech companies with simultaneous flexibility, automation, and remote process control (1).

The launch coincides with the start of the 2025 INTERPHEX conference in New York City, which runs from April 1–3, 2025.

Culture Biosciences defines cloud-based bioprocessing as the integration of physical bioreactors with remote data monitoring, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven optimization (1). The company has designed Stratyx 250 to allow researchers to leverage its Culture Console software for remote tracking and adjusting of parameters in real time.

The end results, according to Culture Biosciences in the press release, include reduction of errors, improved reproducibility, and greater precision and efficiency (1). This is especially important, the company said, considering that biotech companies are generating massive amounts of process data given the rise in high-throughput experimental methods, but may lack the ability to efficiently derive actionable insights from that data.

“The biotech and biopharmaceutical market segments are experiencing a major shift toward cloud-powered, modular bioprocessing, and these companies need hardware and software that can keep up,” said Chris Williams, CEO of Culture Biosciences, in the release (1). “With a five-month ROI [return on investment] timeline and a plug-and-play scalable architecture, our platform offers a cost-effective, flexible alternative to traditional bioreactors—helping companies accelerate development and reduce costs without compromising on quality.”

According to the press release, Stratyx 250 affords users a 16% lower total cost per run versus traditional benchtop bioreactors, development timelines that are faster by up to 25%, and a 30% improvement in scale-up success (1).

In discussing its offering of an “early adopter” program for select customers, Culture Biosciences provided the perspective of Jondavid De Jong, PhD, vice president of Scientific Operations for Virica Biotech.

“Stratyx 250 is already reshaping how we approach process development,” De Jong said (1). “The ability to remotely monitor and adjust experiments in real time is streamlining our workflows and improving reproducibility across runs. The combination of cloud integration, automation, and mobility makes it a game-changer for modern bioprocessing.”

In the March 2025 issue of Pharmaceutical Technology®, Anthony Christopher, commercial manager of bioprocessing at Kent Elastomer Products, said that automation has been playing a larger role in advancing equipment that supports bioprocessing, highlighting digital twin technology, integrated control systems, automated sampling and analysis, and smart bioreactors as some of the developments being witnessed in the biomanufacturing space—including at the commercial level (2).

“From what our team has seen, most commercial biomanufacturing processes are partially automated, with automation implemented in upstream (e.g., bioreactors, feeding systems) and downstream (e.g., chromatography, filtration) steps,” Christopher said, qualifying that manual intervention is needed for setup, troubleshooting, and quality control, but that many facilities now use automated systems for data collection, process monitoring, and quality assurance (2).

Culture Biosciences said Stratyx 250 is currently being demonstrated at its South San Francisco facility (1). The company can also be found at Booth #3417 at INTERPHEX, being held at the Javits Center in New York City.

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References

1. Culture Biosciences. Culture Biosciences Unveils Stratyx 250, the First Cloud-Integrated, Mobile Bioreactor for Cell Culture Process Development. Press Release. April 1, 2025.
2. Mirasol, F. Accelerating Adoption of Smart Tools to Advance Manufacturing. Pharmaceutical Technology 2025, 49 (2) 10–13.