Cellino

Just yesterday, Cellino unveiled the location of our first induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) Foundry at Mass General Hospital (MGH) in collaboration with the Mass General Brigham (MGB) Gene and Cell Therapy Institute.

At Cellino, we have always made patients our North Star, making this collaboration incredibly meaningful to us—it’s a bold leap forward in redefining regenerative medicine for patients across the United States right at the point of care. In 2023, while brainstorming different distribution form factors for Nebula™, my co-founder and CTO sketched a design that we proudly pinned in our hallway as a source of inspiration. Little did we know that one day, we would announce our first groundbreaking hospital-based foundry in Boston, down the street and across the river at MGH, from where we invented our technology.

2023 Sketch of future hospital-embedded Foundry (by Matthias Wagner, Cellino Co-Founder & CTO)

Sketch of future hospital-embedded Foundry displayed in our hallway outside of our laboratory My Boston story began in Harvard Square, where I spent five years as a PhD student in physics, falling in love with applying physics to biology—doing nanofab at the Center for Nanoscale Systems, working in a femtosecond laser lab, and collaborating with brilliant biologists who introduced me to iPSCs (Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Laurence Daheron) and gene-editing (George Church lab). I spent countless hours traveling around Cambridge and to the Longwood campus, not knowing I was soaking in the magic of the Boston ecosystem. There's some magic in witnessing backpacks from Moderna, Google, and even Cellino riding the red line— passionate humans heading to work in the world’s most innovative square mile.

View of Kendall Square from Cellino HQ (Feb 2025) - Can you spot Novartis and LabCentral?

Working with Susan Hockfield, President Emerita of MIT, opened my eyes to the power of convergence in Kendall Square. The world-changing spirit of this square mile took my breath away. It sparked an urgent desire to participate directly in transforming human health. In 2017, Marinna and I joined forces with veteran founder and technologist Matthias—marking the beginning of Cellino’s story. Today, Cellino operates in the heart of Kendall Square (750 Main St), sitting above the red line route with optical systems built to withstand red line tremors 🙂. Our team, multifluent in AI, hardware, medicine, and fluidics, is built to tackle the myriad challenges in delivering population-level iPSCs for therapeutic use. The Cellino team has poured their heart and soul into our disruptive technology, and I am incredibly proud of our Cellineers!

Over the past four years, we have relentlessly problem-solved through many ups and downs, pushing the limits of semiconductor precision and autonomy in cell manufacturing. I am proud of our team for inventing and establishing an optical bioprocess that runs autonomously with AI to generate high-quality iPSCs compared to manual controls, which was beyond imagination when the founders launched Cellino in 2017. We were grateful to share our progress with the FDA at our CATT meeting in October 2024, and we remain inspired by the FDA’s forward-thinking strategies around advanced manufacturing technologies.

Our next chapter is the most exciting yet. With ARPA-H support and our pioneering optical bioprocess technology, we’re gearing up to deliver Nebula™—an innovative tech stack designed to drive industrial revolution 4.0 in cell, tissue, and organ replacement. This closed system will massively scale clinical iPSC production, enabling patients nationwide to access curative medicines produced from their own cells. In collaboration with the MGB Gene and Cell Therapy Institute, Nebula™ will be embedded at Mass General Hospital to produce clinical-grade iPSCs for pioneering clinical programs, starting with Dr. Jeff Schweitzer’s Parkinson’s program. The Foundry is set to serve as the launchpad for numerous autologous iPSC programs using a patient’s own cells, offering new hope to patients battling chronic and degenerative diseases.

Me holding the Nebula™ cassette, a key component of our optical bioprocess technology From my early days as a scientist in Harvard Square to becoming an entrepreneur in the heart of Kendall Square—and now driving our innovations to directly impact patient care at MGH—my journey embodies the American dream. Guided by the red line, literally and metaphorically, I have pursued relentless passion, collaboration, and a vision to serve patients at scale. Now a proud American—born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Bangladesh, Germany, and Sri Lanka, and finally home in Massachusetts—leading Cellino is an honor. Our team is committed to serving fellow Americans nationwide by delivering scalable biomanufacturing of curative cell and tissue-based therapies that reverse degenerative and chronic diseases. Like the red line connecting Boston from start to finish, Cellino’s journey links innovation with patient impact—and we can’t wait for the next decade of driving change. Nabiha Saklayen Our Values: Seek Unity, Be Brave, and Show Kindness.