Adele Hannigan
Chief Business Officer
News Announcements
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June 12, 2026
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4 min read
Therapeutic developers are under increasing pressure to generate robust functional data earlier in development, yet many still rely on cellular models that are difficult to build, difficult to standardise and slow to deploy. RoukenCells has been created to address that challenge, providing researchers with access to the same engineered cellular tools that RoukenBio has developed and refined through years of assay development and client programmes.
Built using RoukenBio’s proprietary platforms, including IndEx-2 and LocIn, RoukenCells provides access to single and dual inducible cell lines, advanced reporter cell line assays systems, and high quality expanded and engineered primary immune cell banks. Making these tools available to researchers reflects our commitment to turning in-house innovation into solutions that can accelerate immunotherapy and biologics discovery beyond the boundaries of RoukenBio’s Discovery Centre, allowing developers to implement our proprietary platforms and novel solutions into their own drug discovery and testing workflows.
RoukenCells focuses on the provision of off-the-shelf cell products, offering immediate access to robust cellular tools, while RoukenBio continues to operate as the collaborative research partner arm providing pre-clinical immunology services with tailored assay systems and broader in vitro drug discovery support. Together, this combined services and products model allows us to leverage more than a decade of expertise in cell-based assay development and make the tools we have created available to a broader scientific community.
The initial RoukenCells portfolio includes inducible antigen expression systems (IndEx-2), reporter cell line platforms, engineered cellular assay systems and primary immune cell banks, with additional technologies planned as the portfolio expands.
Developers working at the forefront of emerging therapeutic modalities often find that suitable cellular models simply do not exist. As science advances, commercially available tools frequently lag behind the questions researchers need to answer. Many of our products originated from practical questions we encountered during client programmes and internal assay development;
how can I build a robust and consistent primary cell model of antigen specific responses?
Each of these are questions we have asked of ourselves. In response, the experts at Rouken created the cell-based bioassay solution they needed.
The best tools in drug discovery are the ones scientists build because nothing else exists.
The value of these cellular tools lies in the problems they were built to solve; they were conceived of and created at Rouken in response to the product gaps we encountered in our own assay development activities. Unlike products developed primarily for commercial sale, many RoukenCells solutions originated as tools built to answer real scientific questions within client programmes and internal discovery projects. They were created because existing solutions did not adequately address the challenges we and our clients were facing. Only after proving their value in real-world assay development and drug discovery applications did they evolve into products that could be shared more broadly with the scientific community.
For example, IndEx-2 enables precise control of antigen expression, allowing researchers to evaluate therapeutic activity across biologically relevant antigen densities. In one programme, a CD19-inducible IndEx-2 cell line was used to compare a novel CD19-targeted T cell engager against an approved therapy, demonstrating superior activity at lower antigen expression levels. This capability helps developers better understand how candidate molecules may behave in more challenging biological settings.
Having supported therapeutic developers across immune-oncology, autoimmunity, allergy and inflammatory disease, RoukenBio has developed a broad portfolio of cellular tools designed to characterise therapies that interact with the immune system.
For I-O immunotherapies, many of the same target antigens are utilised by immune cell engagers and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) engineered cell therapies. Our portfolio of inducible IndEx-2 cell lines covers a range of commonly targeted I-O antigens across haematological and solid tumour indications, allowing researchers to model physiological to pathological target expression levels in vitro within a single genetic background and better understand therapeutic activity across different antigen-density settings.
To support the development of anti-IgE therapeutics, we developed a unique reporter cell line that enables high-throughput luminescence-based screening of hundreds of candidates. The same system can also be coupled to functional degranulation assays measuring β-hexosaminidase and histamine release, providing a rapid and biologically relevant alternative to primary mast cell differentiation workflows which can take weeks to establish.
Measuring antigen-specific immune responses in primary cell systems can be challenging due to variability, scalability and throughput limitations. To address this, we have developed TCR-engineered primary T cells (e.g. MART-1 TCR-T) and endogenous TCR-expanded T-cell banks (e.g. CMV-responsive donors), enabling robust assessment of therapies designed to attenuate antigen-specific T-cell responses.
Together, these technologies provide researchers with a suite of cellular models spanning immune-oncology, allergy and autoimmune disease applications, helping accelerate the development and characterisation of therapies designed to modulate the immune system.
Confidence In Every Vial
Confidence starts with consistency. Not only are our products conceived and created from a real-world need facing us and our clients, our products are created under robust quality controlled banking procedures, designed to support reproducible performance from every vial. A focus on quality, transparency, traceability and reproducibility define our standards. Every RoukenCells product comes with clear documentation, defined assay procedures and licensing clarity including:
1. Safety QC: Sterility & mycoplasma release tested - CofA with every vial
2. Expression: Data sheets evidencing expression levels by flow cytometry
3. Functional performance: Activity data available for reporter cell lines, assay systems and immune cell banks, demonstrating that the cells are fit for bioassay purpose.
4. Traceability: Rouken has the global rights to modify, develop, and engineer ATCC-originated cell lines, to provide engineered variants as cell products worldwide.
Our goal is simple: provide researchers with cellular models that generate clearer answers to questions that matter, by reducing experimental uncertainty and accelerating confident decision-making.
As important as the launch of RoukenCells is today, its significance extends beyond the introduction of a new product portfolio. It represents an evolution in how RoukenBio delivers value to the life sciences community. For more than a decade, RoukenBio has worked alongside therapeutic developers to solve complex scientific challenges through collaborative research. Throughout that journey, we have repeatedly developed innovative cellular tools, assay systems and engineering approaches to answer difficult questions for our clients and our own scientists. Many of these solutions proved so valuable and broadly applicable that they deserved to reach beyond individual projects.
RoukenCells is the mechanism through which we can achieve that. By transforming proven internal innovations into accessible, standardised products, we can place powerful cellular technologies directly into the hands of researchers worldwide. This allows us to extend the impact of our science far beyond the projects we can support ourselves, while continuing to strengthen RoukenBio's position as a trusted partner in preclinical immunology and biologics drug discovery.
Our vision is to be the most trusted research partner for global biotherapeutic developers. RoukenCells expands how we fulfil that vision, allowing us not only to work alongside customers through collaborative research programmes, but also to place Rouken-developed technologies directly into their laboratories.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many members of the Rouken team who have contributed towards the creation of RoukenCells. The project has involved almost every department, including the Cell Technologies Division, Innovation, Commercial, Marketing, Quality, Operations, Scientific & Operational Support teams. At Rouken, collaboration is at the heart of everything we do, and our teams have showcased this value throughout the entirety of the project.
The launch of RoukenCells reflects the continued development of RoukenBio's Cell Technologies capabilities, creating a dedicated route through which internally developed technologies can be translated into scalable products for the wider scientific community. Our ambition is simple: to continue translating the technologies we create inside Rouken into products that help scientists answer increasingly complex biological questions.
Whether you are developing cell therapies, immune engagers, antibodies or other immune-modulating therapeutics, the RoukenCells team can help identify the right cellular tools for your application.
Contact our team or explore the RoukenCells portfolio.
Dual-inducible IndEx-2 cell lines, reporter cell lines, and immune cell banks that plug straight into your functional assays.
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