Curate Biosciences

About Curate Biosciences

Curate Biosciences, formerly known as GPB Scientific, is a life sciences company focused on transforming cell therapy manufacturing. Founded in 2002, with dedicated work on its primary system beginning in 2016, the company operates with facilities in Carlsbad, California. The name change from GPB Scientific, which stood for 'getting people better,' to Curate Biosciences was a strategic move to better reflect the company's core mission of providing high-quality cells for therapeutic use.

The company was founded by Mike Grisham, who also serves as Chairman. Initially, the firm and its spinoffs developed various devices for the microfluidics field, with an early focus on prenatal diagnostics. The pivot towards cell and gene therapy capitalizes on this deep experience. The business targets biopharmaceutical companies, contract manufacturers (CDMOs), and academic research centers involved in developing cell therapies like CAR-T. Its business model centers on selling its proprietary cell processing system and the associated single-use cartridges required for its operation.

The flagship product is the Curate® Cell Processing System, a benchtop instrument that automates cell separation. It utilizes a proprietary microfluidic technology called Deterministic Cell Separation™ (DCS), which gently sorts cells based on size. This method is exceptionally efficient, recovering about 90% of white blood cells from a patient's blood product while eliminating over 90% of red blood cells and 99% of platelets. The key benefit is the delivery of a cleaner, larger, and healthier quantity of starting cells, a critical bottleneck in manufacturing gene and cell therapies. By improving the quality of this initial material, the system can reduce the overall cost of autologous cell therapy production by up to 50% and shorten the time needed to create a patient-specific dose. The system is designed for ease of use, processing a standard blood cell unit in approximately 45 minutes with minimal hands-on time.