OneCyte and Kemp Proteins announced a strategic partnership on April 3, 2026, combining their respective platform technologies to deliver integrated cell line development services to biopharmaceutical clients globally. The collaboration pairs OneCyte’s high-throughput single-cell clone selection platform with Kemp Proteins’ machine learning-driven PROTiQ protein engineering system, targeting persistent manufacturing bottlenecks associated with complex and difficult-to-express biologic modalities.
The arrangement is structured as a technology integration partnership rather than a traditional asset-centric licensing deal. No specific drug candidates, therapeutic targets, or disease indications are included in the scope of the agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Under the partnership, Kemp Proteins’ PROTiQ platform performs upstream in silico evaluation of amino acid sequences, assessing developability risks, identifying sequence liabilities, and generating structural insights prior to experimental work. Candidates that clear this computational triage are then processed through OneCyte’s single-cell platform, which enables rapid identification of high-producing clones from large cell populations. The combined workflow also incorporates access to a royalty-free CHO-K1 GS knockout cell line and a transposase-based expression system, which the companies state removes restrictive licensing constraints for clients using the service.
The operational division of labor is defined by the sequential nature of the two platforms: Kemp Proteins handles molecular design and developability optimization, while OneCyte executes high-throughput clone selection and stable cell line generation. The service offering is positioned as globally available, with language in the announcement referencing “biopharmaceutical companies worldwide” and “global biopharma customers,” though no formal geographic exclusivity or territorial carve-outs are defined.