Immune therapies such as CAR-T have transformed what medicine can achieve, but developing and manufacturing these treatments remains complex and expensive. Drug developers still struggle to measure their performance quickly and reproducibly, and lack the tools to fully understand why one candidate or manufacturing process performs better than another. Current assays are slow, rely on indirect signals or averaged readouts, and are difficult to translate from research into routine manufacturing. This limits mechanistic insight and can delay critical development decisions.

SpectaCell combines digital imaging with large data analysis to track large numbers of individual cells and their interactions directly, at high resolution. Rather than reporting only an averaged end point, the platform captures dynamic single-cell behaviour over time and turns it into functional insights. SpectaCell offers fast read-outs and is designed as a simple, label-free 'load-and-go' workflow. Additionally, by using the same platform in R&D and manufacturing, customers can carry comparable functional data across the lifecycle of a therapy instead of working with isolated assays.

Building on more than a decade of research at imec, VIB and Ghent University, SpectaCell brings together semiconductor and imaging technology with biological, clinical and data-science expertise. Its founding team combines experience in life-science commercialization, cell and gene therapy operations, product development, bioinformatics and AI. Qbic backs SpectaCell as it translates this research into a scalable commercial platform.

Over the next few years, SpectaCell will validate its technology with biopharma partners and develop a commercial platform spanning early research, process development and routine manufacturing QC. By connecting results across therapies, teams and development stages, SpectaCell will reduce testing delays, lower costs and carry insights forward as medicines progress.  SpectaCell’s ambition is to set a new industry standard across multiple types of immunotherapies, building a global business around an essential, recurring need.