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Innovation for industry | Health & life sciences


Cellandsoft, in vitro soft culture plates for molecule safety, toxicity and efficacy testing

Published on 15 April 2025
​Faster, cheaper, more successful drug development

Cell&Soft develops soft, textured culture plates that mimic human tissues for more relevant in vitro trials and faster drug development.

 

Cell&Soft culture plates.

In vitro cell cultures are plagued by a lack of predictability: 98% of promising results obtained in vitro turn out to be clinical failures. The low success rate is due in part to the plastic culture plates used in labs. A million times stiffer than human tissues and organs, the plates subject cells to a very different environment than that of their original organs, skewing the results.

Cell&Soft’s hydrogel culture plates mimic the physiological rigidity of the lungs, heart, brain, and other organs and tissues. Several academic research laboratories have confirmed that the cellular models developed on these plates are more realistic, providing in vivo conditions for safety, toxicity and efficacy testing of new molecules.

The startup has developed an initial line of eleven products and co-develops custom plates with biotech companies. The CEA saw the potential of these technologies at an early stage and financed the first market studies.


Key figure: 1​% to 2%

Today, only 1% to 2% of drug candidates tested in vitro are effective in clinical trials


Key markets:

  • Oncology
  • Cell culture
  • Cell-based assays
  • Dermocosmetics


Technology:

  • Synthetic hydrogels designed using microelectronic techniques
  • Photopolymerization through lithography masks enables local rigidity representative of a given organ


Year founded: 2018

Originating institutes: CEA-Irig and CNRS-LTM