Ann Arbor-based Akadeum Life Sciences, Inc. has closed a $20 million Series A funding round, backed by Michigan Capital Network, Arboretum Ventures, NYBC Ventures, and other strategic investors. This new round will accelerate the deployment of Akadeum’s groundbreaking microbubble technology for use in cell separation, therapeutic development, and clinical workflows.

Founded by Brandon McNaughton, Akadeum is tackling one of the most overlooked yet critical processes in cell therapy: getting the right cells, fast and cleanly. Their technology enables high-throughput, gentle, and scalable cell separation without the need for complex instrumentation - an elegant solution to a long-standing bottleneck in biotech manufacturing.

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What Akadeum Actually Does

At the heart of Akadeum’s platform is a deceptively simple idea: use buoyant microbubbles - tiny gas-filled particles functionalized with biological capture agents - to separate specific cell populations. Unlike magnetic or flow-based systems that require expensive, maintenance-heavy equipment, Akadeum’s solution:

• Works in standard labware with minimal equipment
  
• Enables closed, automated processing in GMP settings
  
• Reduces cell damage and improves yield
  
• Seamlessly integrates into existing biomanufacturing workflows
  

This is particularly important in cell and gene therapy, where the quality and purity of isolated cells directly impacts therapeutic safety, efficacy, and regulatory success.

Akadeum’s microbubble platform isn’t just faster or cheaper. It’s foundational infrastructure - removing friction in the manufacturing and clinical development of personalized therapies.

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Why Cell Separation Matters More Than Ever

Cell separation is a non-negotiable step in the production of cell therapies, biomanufacturing, and diagnostic workflows. Yet despite its importance, it remains a major bottleneck for the life sciences industry.

A 2023 BioProcess International survey found that 68% of cell therapy developers view upstream cell preparation and enrichment as a top pain point in scalability. Legacy approaches are often:

• Time-intensive and hard to automate
  
• Dependent on skilled labor
  
• Risk-prone in GMP environments due to open-system exposure
  

Meanwhile, demand is soaring. The cell and gene therapy market is expected to surpass $45 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of over 20% (Grand View Research). More than 2,200 cell therapy trials were active globally in 2023, with manufacturing and purification listed as primary bottlenecks in over half.

Akadeum is positioning itself not as a supplement to this trend - but as critical infrastructure for the next phase of cell therapy scale-up.

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The Biotech Bottleneck: Cell Separation as a Growth Constraint

Cell separation is a vital step in nearly all advanced therapies - from CAR-T cell therapies and stem cell transplants to regenerative medicine and immuno-oncology workflows. But according to a 2023 Nature Biotechnology report, over 60% of clinical-stage cell therapy developers cite sample preparation and cell enrichment as the primary barrier to scaling.

Traditional methods like FACS (Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting) and magnetic separation are:

• Time-consuming and labor-intensive
  
• Prone to reducing cell viability
  
• Difficult to scale in cleanroom/GMP environments
  

This makes Akadeum’s microbubble approach a game changer. In published use cases, Akadeum has demonstrated up to 42% faster sample prep times, higher target purity, and reduced contamination risk in closed-system setups.

As cell therapy moves from boutique labs into global markets, the need for scalable, gentle, cost-effective separation technologies is exploding - and Akadeum is leading the charge.

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Why This Round Matters

What makes Akadeum’s $20M round compelling isn’t just the science - it’s the business strategy.

The company has focused intensely on infrastructure enablement, not just lab research. Akadeum didn’t aim to be the therapy - it aimed to be the enabler of many therapies, embedding itself in the workflows of academic centers, CDMOs, and biotech firms.

That’s where the sharpest strategic insight lives. Akadeum didn’t chase headlines - it chased relevance. And the path they took is one that founders often overlook: solving the step everyone depends on but no one wants to build.

Every biotech founder dreams of the breakthrough treatment. But the quiet truth is that the companies with the deepest moat are the ones that solve foundational friction - not by being flashy, but by being required.

If you want real defensibility in a regulated, high-barrier industry like life sciences, stop trying to own the hero narrative. Instead, own the workflow. Make yourself the default layer for someone else’s success, and your adoption becomes exponential - because every new customer is also building your distribution.

Akadeum didn’t try to disrupt the cure. They built something so fundamental that anyone working on the cure can’t move forward without them.

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Market Outlook: Cell Therapy Is Entering Its Prime

The Market Outlook: Cell Therapy Infrastructure Is Heating Up

According to MarketsandMarkets, the global cell separation market is forecast to grow from $8.8 billion in 2023 to $13.7 billion by 2028, driven by:

• Increased adoption of cell therapies in oncology and regenerative medicine
  
• Expansion of clinical trial pipelines and CDMO manufacturing capacity
  
• Demand for GMP-compliant, non-toxic separation tools
  
• A shift toward closed-system processing and automation
  

Meanwhile, the biotech tools and reagents sector has seen a 52% increase in VC funding since 2021, as investors look for enabling technologies that reduce cost and accelerate trial timelines.

Akadeum’s platform addresses this head-on by replacing manual, failure-prone separation steps with a plug-and-play, low-friction solution suited for both research and GMP use.

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What’s Next for Akadeum?

With its Series A capital, Akadeum plans to:

• Expand its GMP manufacturing and QA teams
  
• Roll out its closed-system separation kits for CDMOs and clinical partners
  
• Develop new microbubble reagents for T cell, NK cell, and stem cell subtypes
  
• Scale commercial partnerships across the U.S. and Europe
  
• Pursue strategic applications in autoimmune and transplant research
  

The company is also working to integrate its microbubble kits into automated platforms, reducing operator variability and preparing for global scale-up.