Cell Therapy Conference 2026
8th - 9th December 2026, London, United Kingdom
From Starting Material to Scalable, Potent Cell Therapies
The Cell Therapy Conference 2026, taking place on 8–9 December 2026 in London, offers a focused two-day programme addressing some of the most important challenges facing the cell therapy industry today. Under the themes “From Starting Cell to Scalable Manufacturing” and “Engineering the Next Generation of Cell Therapies,” the conference brings together key considerations across cell sourcing, manufacturing scale-up, genetic modification, gene delivery, product quality, and functional potency.
A key strength of the conference is its focus on the complete cell therapy manufacturing lifecycle. Rather than looking at individual stages in isolation, the programme explores how decisions made at the starting-cell stage can influence downstream manufacturing, product quality, scalability, potency, and ultimately clinical performance. This provides delegates with an opportunity to understand the interconnected challenges involved in developing more consistent and reproducible cell therapy products.
Conference Highlights
1. Improving Starting-Cell Quality and Consistency
The conference begins by addressing one of the fundamental challenges in cell therapy manufacturing: variability in starting material. Donor-to-donor, tissue-to-tissue, and run-to-run differences can affect cell phenotype, viability, potency, and differentiation potential. The programme examines practical approaches to cell sourcing, isolation, characterisation, and standardisation to establish more consistent starting populations.
This is particularly valuable for organisations seeking to improve manufacturing predictability. Delegates will explore how early decisions around sourcing and characterisation can influence downstream process performance and how critical quality attributes can be used to translate biological variability into measurable manufacturing controls.
The interactive discussions further strengthen this theme by examining donor qualification, acceptance criteria, advanced analytics, isolation strategies, and the attributes that best predict downstream manufacturing consistency and product quality.
2. Scaling Cell Expansion from Laboratory to Manufacturing
A major conference highlight is the dedicated focus on cell expansion and manufacturing scale-up. Scaling a living-cell product presents challenges that differ significantly from scaling conventional biologics. Changes in cell density, oxygen transfer, nutrient availability, shear, and other process conditions can influence growth, phenotype, viability, and functional potency.
The programme explores how manufacturers can move from laboratory-scale processes towards robust and reproducible manufacturing platforms while maintaining the required quality attributes. Sessions examine process engineering, scale-dependent biological changes, environmental control, and the risks associated with increasing manufacturing capacity.
For attendees involved in process development, manufacturing, engineering, or technology transfer, this provides an opportunity to gain a broader understanding of how scale-up decisions can affect both cell quantity and cell quality.
3. Advancing Precision Gene Delivery
Day Two moves into genetic modification and gene delivery, with particular attention to CAR-T and TCR therapies. The conference examines how controlled gene delivery and transgene expression can influence the performance, consistency, safety, and potency of engineered cell therapies.
Importantly, the programme looks beyond simply achieving successful gene transfer. It considers the need to control where, how much, and for how long therapeutic genes are expressed, while addressing expression variability and potential genomic effects.
Delegates can therefore gain insight into the relationship between gene-delivery technology, cellular phenotype, therapeutic function, reproducibility, and safety. The discussions also consider the challenges of translating sophisticated genetic-engineering approaches into reproducible clinical products.
4. Strengthening Cell Quality and Functional Potency
Another significant benefit is the conference's focus on the difference between having a sufficient number of cells and having functionally effective cells. The programme challenges conventional approaches that focus primarily on cell count, viability, and identity by examining factors such as exhaustion, differentiation, senescence, metabolic state, and functional fitness.
This is particularly important because cellular functionality can change during manufacturing, processing, cryopreservation, and storage. A product may meet its target dose while experiencing changes that affect its biological activity. The conference therefore explores strategies for monitoring and preserving cellular quality and developing potency approaches that better reflect therapeutic function.
The programme also examines how potency assays can evolve to provide a stronger connection between manufacturing controls, product quality, biological activity, and expected clinical performance.
Key Benefits of Attending
For professionals working across cell therapy research, process development, manufacturing, quality, analytical development, technology, and clinical translation, the conference offers several practical benefits.
Gain insights into process consistency: Understand how variability at the starting-cell stage can be identified, monitored, and controlled to support more reproducible manufacturing outcomes.
Improve scale-up strategies: Explore approaches for scaling cell expansion while maintaining phenotype, viability, potency, quality, and process robustness.
Understand emerging gene-delivery approaches: Examine how advances in genetic modification can support more predictable transgene expression, therapeutic potency, and genomic safety.
Strengthen quality and potency strategies: Gain perspectives on monitoring cellular fitness and developing quality and potency assessments that better reflect functional performance.
Connect manufacturing decisions with clinical performance: The programme consistently links upstream and downstream manufacturing decisions with product quality, biological activity, and expected therapeutic performance.
Exchange practical industry perspectives: Interactive sessions provide opportunities for presenters and panellists to discuss industry challenges, share experiences, and explore practical strategies.
Expand professional networks: Dedicated networking breaks provide opportunities to connect with peers, exchange insights, explore shared interests, and develop industry relationships.
Why This Conference Matters
The overall value of the Cell Therapy Conference 2026 lies in its practical and integrated approach. Cell therapy development increasingly requires organisations to balance biological complexity with the need for consistency, scalability, reproducibility, quality, safety, and functional potency.
By bringing these themes together across two days, the conference provides delegates with an opportunity to consider the full journey from starting cell to scalable manufacturing and functional therapeutic product. It addresses not only how to manufacture more cells, but how to manufacture cells that consistently retain the characteristics and functionality required for therapeutic performance.
For organisations looking to strengthen their cell therapy development and manufacturing strategies, the conference provides a valuable platform to identify challenges, explore potential solutions, benchmark approaches, and engage with peers across the industry. The combination of technical presentations, interactive discussions, and networking makes it particularly relevant for professionals seeking practical insights into building more robust, scalable, reproducible, and high-quality cell therapy processes.