As we reach the halfway point of 2025, I’m proud to reflect on another productive six months for Axol Bioscience and look back at the key highlights of our first six months of the year.
2025 is a year of growth for us. We will be closing H1 around 50% up on the prior year, which is our 8th consecutive quarter of like for like growth!
In April, the FDA published a roadmap outlining an approach to reduce, refine, and replace animal testing in preclinical safety studies with scientifically validated new approach methodologies (NAMs). The integration of iPSC models into drug discovery and disease modeling offers the potential for more accurate, human-relevant data while reducing reliance on animal testing. These models allow for greater translational relevance, de-risking drug discovery and providing the platform for better understanding of human disease and the wider adoption of microphysiological (MPS) platforms could revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry.
We began the year with an announcement that as part of our pledge to help researchers unlock the benefits of iPSC technology for better human disease models, we will maintain our prices throughout 2025, making it affordable to access and use market-leading iPSC technology.
As well as integrating Ophthalmology and Dermatology products and services into our portfolio (from last year’s Phenocell acquisition), we have been focusing on custom differentiation and large-scale cell manufacturing, and the integration of our iPSCs into microphysiological (MPS) systems. From exciting new disease lines and strategic partnerships to awards and international recognition, we’ve continued to push the boundaries of what’s possible with human iPSC-derived cells. Here’s a look back at the highlights of the last six months:
January
We kicked off the year with an award! In January, we were recipients of the Scientist.com Supplier Recognition Award, which is based on key performance indicators such as responsiveness, marketplace activity, and customer satisfaction. It’s great to see our commitment to the iPSC industry recognised by this high-profile platform.
Buoyed up by this award, we travelled to San Diego for SLAS 2025, where we introduced the Sensory Neurons 2.0 XF Bundle Kits and presented two posters on using iPSC-derived cells for drug discovery. Then it was on to the 4th International Scientific Congress on Cosmetic Measurement & Testing (COMET 2025), where we discussed the use of human iPSC-derived skin cells for monitoring the effectiveness and safety of cosmetics products.
February
This month, we released a new eBook: Drug Discovery for Dry AMD, which features extensive phenotypic and functional characterization data for our iPSC-derived Retinal Pigment Epithelial RPE) cells. Alongside the eBook, we produced a webinar featuring Dr Florian Regent, our Head of Ophthalmology at Axol, where we discussed the critical role of iPSC-derived cells in studying Dry Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and advancing drug discovery.
This month’s key conference was the Annual CHDI conference, where our team presented two new posters highlighting some of our ongoing work in Huntington’s Disease. Our Censoi019-B is the go-to cell line for iPSC modeling in this space, due to its extremely long CAG tract as a result of somatic instability.
March
March saw some exciting additions to our product portfolio. We announced the launch of MyoMax™ at the Society of Toxicology (SOT) 64th Annual Meeting. MyoMax is a groundbreaking maturation media designed to enhance the maturity of iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs).
March also saw the release of a collection of iPSC lines derived from patients with sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (sAD). The ‘Axol Bioscience Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease Line Collection’ was developed in partnership with StrataStem and is available for use in Axol’s custom iPSC-derived cell manufacturing program. This collection represents a significant advance in the tools available for pre-clinical in vitro model building and drug discovery research.
An exciting new academic-commercial collaboration got underway this month, aiming to improve the efficiency and speed of cellular reprogramming by uniting expertise and technology from the Christophorou lab at the Babraham Institute and the Walport lab at the Francis Crick Institute, with Axol Bioscience’s state-of-the-art-cell reprogramming platform. The project has the potential to improve and scale up the production of cells and tissues in drug discovery and healthcare medicine and is supported by a UKRI-BBSRC Campus Innovation Award (CIA) via the Babraham Research Campus Collaboration Fund.
Finally, following on from last month’s Annual CHDI conference, Dr Sara Barreto gave a webinar where she spoke about the challenges in HD research, including the complexities of modelling the disease and replicating its progressive pathology in the lab.
April
The arrival of spring and the Easter festivities found the Axol team in full bloom. This month is always packed full of conferences, and this year was no exception. The team attended key events such as In-Cosmetics, AD/PD, the New York Stem Cell Foundation conference, the Skin Summit in Antibes, Edinburgh Neuroscience Day 2025, and the Stanford Drug Discovery summit (SDDS) 2025.
Alongside all the travel, we also found time for another webinar! Duncan Borthwick, our Head of Sales and Marketing, and Hélène Leménager, Head of Dermo-Cosmetics, discussed how iPSC technology is a powerful tool for dermatology research and testing, enabling the creation of human skin models that closely mimic the physiology and responses of skin: https://axolbio.com/webinars/
Next up in April was the announcement of our Carbon Reduction Plan, which features a commitment to reach Net Zero by 2045. The company acknowledges that the biotech industry has significant environmental implications and is actively mitigating these effects, showing responsibility towards both scientific advancement and the broader global community. We envision fostering a culture of sustainability by engaging both customers and staff through education, awareness, and actionable practices, and will share more about our plan as it progresses.
Finally, we hit another milestone this month when we hit the landmark of 10,000 LinkedIn followers! A huge thank you to everyone who has engaged with our posts, subscribed to our newsletter, and hit the “follow” button on our page.
May
A sunny May saw us publishing some key new marketing pieces. First off the press was a new brochure featuring our donor iPSC axoLines and high-throughput cell manufacturing capabilities, closely followed by new eBook explaining how our iPSC-derived melanocytes, sebocytes, and sensory neurons are revolutionizing active compound testing, and dermo-cosmetics research and drug discovery.
On the travel front we began the month at The Membrane Physiology Symposium hosted by Nanion Technologies in Napa Valley California, then we had a team attending the ARVO annual meeting in Salt Lake City, the largest event for researchers in vision and ophthalmology. At the ALS Drug Development Summit in Boston, we presented a poster showing how we successfully characterized axoCells human iPSC-derived motor neurons from six different donor lines, which we have made available as the axoCells ALS Toolbox.
June
June is the month of microphysiological (MPS) systems at Axol! The start of June saw us send a large Axol team to the MPS World Summit in Brussels. To accompany the meeting, we released a new Technology Journal in collaboration with 12 leading platform and technology providers, featuring a collection of technical papers describing the utilization of Axol’s iPSC-derived cells on a range of (MPS) and end-point analysis systems.
The journal covers the use of human iPSC-derived neurons, sensory cells, and cardiac cells in conjunction with a range of MPS systems, organoid platforms, and multi-electrode arrays, as well as genomic and transcriptomic assays. We are very grateful to our collaborators: 3Brain, BiomimiX, CytoTronics, Systasy Bioscience, Ushio, Mimetas, Sygnature Discovery, Axion BioSystems, 4DCell, innoVitro, NETRI, Tessara Therapeutics for working with us to put together this journal.
The middle of the month saw us at the BIO International Convention in Boston, where 20,000 industry leaders from across the globe make valuable connections and build relationships.
We rounded off the month, and indeed H1, with a visit to the Ion Channel Modulation Symposium. by Sophion in Cambridge. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be used as physiologically relevant models for high-throughput ion channel screening to assess drug effects and safety pharmacology, and the Axol team was thrilled to join a broad range of people from academia, contract research organizations (CROs), and the pharmaceutical industry to discuss the science of ion channel modulation.
Looking ahead
As the industry continues to embrace in vitro technologies, our influence will continue to grow.
The hard work and diligence of the team have enabled us to increase our impact through more collaborations, additional products and services, and, most importantly, more data. I want to thank our customers and the Axol Team for working to our values of performance, accountability, transparency, integrity, diversity, inclusivity, and collaboration as we excite and delight our customers while supporting the industry through collaboration and innovation.
If you’d like to discuss anything I’ve mentioned in this review, then please feel free to contact operations@axolbio.com.
Until next time, let’s keep working hard to drive better therapies for patients worldwide.
