Luisa Crawford
Jan 12, 2026 23:20
San Francisco startup makes use of NVIDIA Isaac Sim and Omniverse to automate cell remedy manufacturing, concentrating on $38B market with robotics that reduce contamination threat.
Multiply Labs is betting that robots can do for cell remedy labs what automation did for semiconductor fabs—and the numbers counsel they is perhaps proper. The San Francisco startup claims its robotic manufacturing techniques reduce manufacturing prices by greater than 70% whereas lowering contamination threat in considered one of drugs’s most finicky processes.
The corporate, based in 2016 and backed by Y Combinator, now works with main cell remedy gamers together with Kyverna Therapeutics and Legend Biotech. Its pitch is easy: cell therapies are customized therapies that require extracting cells from sufferers, genetically modifying them, and reinfusing them to struggle illnesses. Every batch is basically a one-off manufacturing run the place a single contamination occasion can destroy weeks of labor.
“She confirmed me what she did in a lab and the way tough it was, and I could not consider it—I believed medicine had been made like chips, and this was insane but in addition actual,” mentioned Fred Parietti, co-founder and CEO, recalling when MIT colleague Alice Melocchi first confirmed him the guide processes concerned.
The Tech Stack Behind the Clear Room
Multiply Labs is constructing its automation platform on NVIDIA’s robotics infrastructure. The corporate makes use of NVIDIA Omniverse to create digital twins of lab environments and Isaac Sim to coach robots on the exact actions required for cell dealing with. Extra not too long ago, they’ve began creating humanoid robots utilizing NVIDIA’s Isaac GR00T basis mannequin.
The simulation-first strategy issues right here. Cell remedy manufacturing entails what the trade calls “tacit data”—the undocumented experience that skilled scientists develop over years. Multiply Labs makes use of imitation studying to seize these abilities by analyzing video of professional technicians, then translating these actions into robotic management insurance policies.
“It must be sterile, and you don’t need anybody respiratory wherever close to the cells, so it was an apparent excessive worth software of robotics,” Parietti defined.
Market Timing and Regulatory Tailwinds
The cell remedy market stood at roughly $6.88 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit $38.24 billion by 2034, in keeping with Straits Analysis. That development trajectory relies upon closely on fixing the manufacturing bottleneck—present strategies are costly, inconsistent, and battle to scale.
Regulatory momentum seems to be constructing as effectively. The FDA introduced elevated manufacturing flexibility for cell and gene therapies on January 12, 2026, doubtlessly smoothing the trail for automated manufacturing techniques.
For buyers monitoring the intersection of AI, robotics, and biotech, Multiply Labs represents a pure-play guess on bodily AI in healthcare manufacturing. The corporate stays personal, however its partnerships with publicly traded cell remedy builders like Legend Biotech (LEGN) provide oblique publicity to this automation development.
The actual check comes as these robotic techniques transfer from pilot packages to full-scale manufacturing. If Multiply Labs can persistently ship on that 70% price discount at scale, the economics of customized drugs begin trying very totally different.
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