Bracco Enters Cell Therapy Manufacturing with Cell Selection and Activation Technologies

Key findings

• Bracco Imaging is expanding into cell therapy manufacturing, using its lipid microbubble technology for cell selection and activation.
• The company is positioning its approach as a bead-free alternative to magnetic bead-based enrichment and activation.
• Bracco to present early data at Advanced Therapies Week 2026 in San Diego; expected launch in 2027.

Bracco Imaging, a company known for diagnostic imaging, contrast agents, and other medical devices, is entering the cell therapy space with a new application of its microbubble technology, previously used in contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging.

Bracco’s new lipid-based microbubble product is intended to simplify upstream steps in cell therapy manufacturing by providing a bead-free alternative to magnetic bead approaches for cell enrichment and activation.

“After more than two decades of use in diagnostic imaging, we recognized that Bracco’s microbubble technology has applications that will make cell therapy manufacturing faster, more affordable, and ubiquitous,” said Fulvio Renoldi Bracco, CEO of Bracco Imaging SpA. “We aim to give developers of both cell therapies and supporting manufacturing platforms a cleaner, scalable option for cell selection that can expand what’s possible beyond standard CD3+ selection workflows.”

What Bracco is building

Bracco describes the new offering as a lipid-based, gas-filled microbubble technology for bead-free cell selection and activation across cell therapy research and manufacturing workflows, adapted from technology, it says, that has been clinically validated in ultrasound imaging for 25 years.

According to the company, the proprietary lipid microbubbles enable ligand-driven targeting (binding driven by a specific molecular interaction) of a range of immune cell subsets and support positive, negative, and sequential selection strategies. Bracco also says the system is designed to support gentle cell handling and downstream steps, including genetic modification and cell expansion. Workflows can be run sequentially to enable multi-step enrichment, helping developers isolate cell subsets that are harder to purify.

Unlike bead-based approaches, Bracco says its microbubbles can be removed by popping them or by leaving them undisturbed for a short period. Bracco describes the platform as open and integration-ready, compatible with both automated and closed manufacturing systems, and expects it to be available in 2027.

“Therapeutics developers have told us that today’s standard, simple enrichment, falls short of their needs for precise cellular orchestration, creating an obstacle to scaling manufacturing,” said Sophie He, Vice President of Cell Therapy and Head of M&A and Partnering at Bracco Imaging. “We are introducing a ‘zero-footprint’ technology where the separation vector simply dissolves, allowing us to isolate highly specific cell populations without the cellular stress or residual contamination that currently cause bottlenecks. By ensuring intracellular signaling pathways remain unperturbed, we are providing therapeutic teams the clean biological canvas necessary to engineer the next generation of curative medicines.”

Partnerships and development work

• CellBri, to co-develop a flexible, closed-cell selection system
• Limula and experts from the University of Fribourg, to develop an automated alternative to conventional magnetic bead-based cell selection and activation for cell therapy manufacturing

Bracco says it plans to share additional information later this year as early access partners generate data demonstrating the technology’s capabilities.

Advanced Therapies Week 2026

Bracco will introduce the technology at Advanced Therapies Week 2026 in San Diego (we’ll be there too!). Attendees can meet the team at Innovation Zone Stand P6 and attend its presentation, “Using Universal Microbubbles to Optimize T-cell Selection and Activation” in the Innovation Zone on Tuesday, Feb. 10, from 1:00–1:15 p.m. 

More information: www.bracco.com/celltherapy

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