Mitsui Chemicals debuts InnoCell™ microplates to enhance oxygen delivery for advanced cell culture in drug development and personalized medicine.
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. has begun sales of its newly developed InnoCell™ cell culture microplates in July. These advanced microplates are designed with high oxygen permeability, achieved through the combination of Mitsui Chemicals’ proprietary materials and precision cutting technologies. This innovation addresses the growing need for more physiologically relevant tools in the drug discovery and development field.
The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly shifting toward approaches that better replicate human biology, aiming to reduce development time and costs while improving therapeutic accuracy. This trend spans various drug modalities, including small-molecule drugs, antibody treatments, nucleic acid-based therapies, and cutting-edge regenerative medicine such as cell and gene therapies. Recent policy changes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have further reinforced this direction, with a move to phase out mandatory animal testing. Instead, the FDA is encouraging the use of New Approach Methods (NAMs)—including organoids, spheroids, and microphysiological systems, often supplemented by AI—for evaluating drug safety and efficacy. Alongside this, personalized medicine, which involves culturing a patient’s own cells outside the body to determine the most effective treatments, is gaining momentum.
To meet these evolving demands, Mitsui Chemicals has launched InnoCell™, a new brand for its cell culture products. This new line embodies the company’s mission of achieving “innovations in cell culture” and leverages its strengths in chemical materials. The product line includes non-treated “N-type” microplates suited for culturing non-adherent cells, organoids, and spheroids, as well as collagen-coated “C-type” plates that support the culture of hepatocytes and other assay-relevant cells.
These microplates are designed to provide optimal oxygen delivery to cells and tissues, thereby enhancing cell viability over extended culture periods and reducing cell death in complex 3D cultures such as spheroids. Their performance is also expected to improve the reliability of in vitro assays for pharmaceutical development. In particular, InnoCell™ microplates have shown promising results in boosting the proliferation of organoids derived from pancreatic cancer patients, a task that has been difficult with conventional materials. This breakthrough holds potential for faster and more precise delivery of personalized cancer treatments.
Moreover, InnoCell™ plates feature low drug adsorption and excellent imaging characteristics, including high resolution and minimal autofluorescence. These qualities make them ideal for sophisticated drug screening techniques like high-content imaging and phenotypic assays.
Looking ahead, Mitsui Chemicals expects InnoCell™ to play a vital role in advancing fields such as drug discovery, personalized medicine, and regenerative therapies. Ongoing evaluations include applications for culturing patient-derived cancer cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to assess drug efficacy and safety. As part of its strategy to establish the medical sector as a third core business pillar, Mitsui Chemicals will continue investing in innovation and deepening its partnerships to serve diverse and growing industry needs.
