Cellply Joins the NextGenNK Competence Center at Karolinska Institutet to Accelerate Next-Generation Cancer Immunotherapies

Bologna, 17 june 2026 – Cellply is proud to announce that it has officially become a partner of NextGenNK, the prestigious Competence Center for the development of next-generation Natural Killer (NK) cell-based cancer immunotherapies, coordinated by Karolinska Institutet.

This partnership marks a significant milestone in Cellply’s mission to accelerate the development of advanced cell therapies. NextGenNK brings together leading academic researchers, healthcare institutions, and pioneering companies from across Europe to advance NK cell-based cancer immunotherapy, develop potent and selective NK cell therapies, and accelerate their translation into clinical practice.

Cellply’s expertise in single-cell functional analysis and its proprietary platform for deeply characterizing function of immune cell populations align naturally with the Center’s focus on developing the next generation of NK cell-based therapeutics. Through this partnership, we will contribute our technology to support research programs aimed at bringing more effective immunotherapies to patients.

Massimo Bocchi, Co-founder of Cellply and COO: ” Karolinska Institutet has been a global pioneer in studying NK cell biology for decades and joining NextGenNK places VivaCyte® at the heart of that scientific tradition. This is a unique opportunity to validate our platform in one of the most demanding research environments in the world and to demonstrate the clinical value of capabilities such as serial killing analysis and multiparametric single-cell profiling, which we believe can become decisive tools in predicting and optimizing therapy outcomes for patients”.

Evren Alici, Co-director at NextGenNK / Karolinska Institutet: “We are delighted to welcome Cellply into the NextGenNK partnership. Their single-cell analysis capabilities address a real need in the NK cell field: understanding how individual cells behave functionally while assessing their phenotypic profile is key to designing potent and safe therapies. Beyond functional characterization, we believe VivaCyte® can help us identify new biomarkers that reveal why a therapy is effective for one patient but not another, bringing us meaningfully closer to personalized NK cell treatments.”

About NextGenNK

NextGenNK is a Competence Center hosted by Karolinska Institutet, jointly funded by Vinnova, KI, and industrial partners. Its vision is to transform cancer treatment through innovative and affordable NK cell-based therapies. The center bridges the gap between academic discovery and clinical application, fostering a robust ecosystem for the Swedish and international life science industries.

Learn more about NextGen NK here

About Cellply

Cellply is a biology-focused deep tech company developing tools to unravel the complexity of the immune system and enable rapid development of new immunotherapies and cell-based therapies with enhanced potency and persistence. Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, the team is creating state-of-the-art analytical solutions capable of robustly characterizing these exciting therapeutic modalities at single-cell resolution.  Cellply has combined patented microfluidic technology and AI-powered automated image analysis capability with comprehensive automation and dedicated software to create its flagship product VivaCyte^®. Today Cellply is focused on enhancing research and development of cell therapies. Tomorrow its ambition is to dramatically reduce cost and complexity of batch release and potency assays in quality control for these promising innovative therapies.