2025 Biotherapies Pavilion Participant Spotlight: Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies

What are your most important goals as a company for this year and next? What are you most excited to see develop?

Globally, our company seeks to expand our blood offerings, which is why we're pleased to participate in the AABB Annual Meeting Biotherapies Pavilion. Within our Global Therapy Innovation Business Unit, we have three primary goals. First, we bring innovation to the field of personalized medicine to enhance standards of care in high-need disease areas through our continued advancement of technologies and services. Second, we seek to expand access to care through our industry relationships to raise awareness and enhance visibility to areas where infrastructure is limited, thus enabling pathways to care. Finally, we seek to collaborate across the field, such as health care providers, biotech companies and advocacy groups, to transform science into solutions.

I'm most excited to see the impact our innovation has. Our team - both internally and through external collaboration - pushes the boundaries of our devices to expand its dynamic range to fit the next generation of cell and gene therapies. We'll have more to say on that in November, so stay tuned!

How did Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies first start collaborating with AABB? How do you see AABB's role in helping companies such as yours continue to advance within the biotherapies field?

Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies has been collaborating with AABB for decades. Our missions are very much aligned, and our relationship speaks to that. AABB provides access to a fantastic network of companies seeking to drive innovation by bringing these players together across the industry to meet, collaborate and inspire one another.

What do you think will be the next big development within the biotherapies field?

I think we're going to see a continued push towards decentralizing the entire process of cell and gene therapy - from upstream cell collections to downstream manufacturing. Innovations in where collections happen are already in practice today. Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies is here to help collectors optimize their process no matter where it happens: whether that's in a hospital, at a blood center or even on a mobile bus! I also believe the availability of automated manufacturing equipment will help lower the barrier to onboarding sites in a decentralized model, requiring less training and lowering process risk due to open events.

What do you find most rewarding about working within the biotherapies field? What advice would you give to someone starting their biotherapies career?

I think the most rewarding part about working in this field is the tangible impact these therapies are making for patients. Scientifically, we've moved beyond promise to practice, and there's no deceleration in terms of innovative potential of new therapies on the horizon. I think now, the onus is on the industry to make these therapies more accessible to more individuals to maximize their therapeutic value: the execution and delivery of the science must be optimized.

What I would say to anyone beginning their career in this space is "always be curious." There is something new just about every day, so stay connected, stay enthusiastic and keep the patient in mind no matter what.