Magbeads have become a fertile tool in the development of new biotech and pharmaceutical solutions aimed at advancing diagnostic and treatment modes for cancer and other medical conditions. Soon a new player, InnoCell Tech from Taiwan, will be entering the foray as it launches its novel iKNOBeads into the marketplace. The magnetic microbeads are designed to activate immune cells in immunotherapy treatments using a new technology approach.
Developed at the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan, the beads have fostered the establishment of InnoCell Tech, destined to be a new spinoff by ITRI. Now, a collaboration with Reliance Biotech Corporation, a healthcare manufacturing and development firm in Singapore, is preparing to commercialize them.
Breakthrough technology for immunology
In recent years, cellular immunotherapies involving T-cells have revolutionized the strategy for cancer treatment. A type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, T-cells help your immune system fight germs and protect you from disease. Functional magnetic particles, commonly known as magbeads, have become the most widely used artificial antigen-presenting cells for T-cell manufacturing. At present, the commercially available magnetic particles are all spherical. However, the most potent and efficient APCs for T cell activation in vivo are mature dendritic cells with rough membranes with protrusions.
Inspired by nature, micrometer-sized magnetic particles with tailorable sizes and knobby shapes were fabricated for the first time at ITRI and named iKNOBEADS. The uniformity of bead size provides batch-to-batch reproducibility. The non-spherical body creates a larger contact area for cell activation. The magnetic property of the beads allows for the ease of separation, suiting them well for the expansion of immune cells.
iKNOBEADS are core-shell structured magnetic particles. The size of beads and shapes are tunable by adjusting the synthetic recipes with reactive functional groups grafted on the polymeric surface. The beads have demonstrated enormous potential as artificial APCs for expanding natural killer cells, which opens a new era for allogeneic cell immunotherapy. They were certified for human T cells by Taiwan FDA in 2021.
Partnership with Reliance Biotech
The partnership with InnoCell and Reliance Biotech, part of RMT Group in Singapore, was announced by ITRI in January at CES 2025 in Las Vegas (Consumer Electronics Show). “The partnership aims to secure a key position in the supply chain and gain entry into the immunotherapy market,” said ITRI President Edwin Liu.
“The collaboration is a strong partnership, as ITRI excels in technological capabilities, while RMT Group has long possessed international resources and market access. This also marks the first step in tapping into the global market. The iKNOBeads platform improves the production efficiency of immune cells and enhances accessibility to cancer treatment,” said Sean Ishihara, chairman of RMT Group. “We look forward to the success of this technology in the U.S. and anticipate that it will be launched in regions including Asia, Europe and the Middle East, becoming a benchmark technology in the biomedical industry.”
One of the world’s leading technology R&D institutions, ITRI is headquartered in Taiwan and has branch offices in the U.S., Germany, Japan and Thailand tasked with extending its R&D scope and promoting international cooperation. For more information, please visit www.itri.org.tw.
