We are pleased to highlight that at PEGS 2025 in Lisbon, Cristiana Ulpiano presented a talk on scalable macrophage manufacturing specifically on a pipeline for generating macrophages from human iPSCs for therapeutic applications. 

In her presentation, she described a robust and reproducible system to produce human macrophages in large quantity, with the possibility for genetic engineering. This platform enables not only standard macrophage generation, but also the creation of macrophages with enhanced or tailored functions for instance improved targeting, immune-modulation or tissue-repair capacities. 

The importance of macrophage-based therapies lies in the central role these immune cells play across a range of diseases: macrophages are key regulators of inflammation, tissue repair, immune surveillance, and homeostasis. When properly guided or engineered, macrophages can help clear pathogens, modulate immune responses (e.g. in cancer or autoimmunity), and support regeneration of damaged tissues. From cancer immunotherapy to inflammatory and degenerative diseases engineered macrophages hold promise as versatile “living therapeutics.”

Cristiana’s talk emphasized that with iPSC-derived macrophage manufacturing, one overcomes major bottlenecks in cell sourcing, reproducibility, and scalability challenges that have so far limited clinical translation. By controlling differentiation and genetic modification in a well-defined system, clinicians and researchers may soon deploy macrophage therapies more widely and safely.

Overall, the presentation by Cristiana at PEGS 2025 underlines a significant advance: combining stem-cell technology, bioprocessing and immunology enabling next-generation macrophage therapies with potential across oncology, inflammation, immune dysregulation, and tissue-repair.

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