This is a business model that brings automation to a relatively untapped industry that significantly decreases time to market for new drugs and new cures. So I was really inspired to start this company to frankly improve human health by getting drugs to the market more quickly. And the justification is not even an issue because if a pharmaceutical company literally can get a drug to the market one month earlier because of 24/7 automation, it's millions of dollars to the bottom line for just one month.

Host: Okay, thank you so much for the answer. Let's dig into tech now. How does RoboCell actually automate lab processes, and what makes it better than traditional methods?

Charlie: Basically what the RoboCell does is it does robotic transfer of cytonics and reagents to flasks and plates that have stem cells. And the robots load these plates and flasks into our incubators. The cells grow in the incubators.

The robots take flasks out of the incubators and put them in microscope inspection stations that count the cells. And then when the cells reach the appropriate level in the flasks, the robot system ends up cryogenically freezing cells in vials and stores them in another product that we have called the RoboStor, which is a cryogenic robot system. But the advantages this has over traditional are many.

One, we eliminate human error. Human error, some of our customers say, can add three months to the discovery process. We eliminate human contamination because this is a sterile robot system and we frankly get higher throughput.

And of course, running 24/7 versus one shift a day has a dramatic decrease in time to market.

Host: Speaking of productivity, where do labs typically lose the most time? And how does automation help fix that?

Charlie: Manual cell culturing and sample preparation are extremely time intensive. And this is what we've automated. And not only do we automate it and do it in a relatively faster fashion, but it's a very predictable time it takes. So it allows more optimum scheduling.

Host: On that note, congrats on the $15 million funding. What are your main plans for scaling CellTrio with this new round?

Charlie: We plan to expand internationally. Most of our business has been in the U.S., some business in Europe with Thermo Fisher as our partner in Europe. But we know that there's a huge Asian market that we haven't even tapped yet.

So we're going to create Celltrio Asia. We are also going to hire, and we already started doing that, hire business development people. I always joke that we've sold tens of millions of dollars of automation without a single salesperson in the company.

So I'm going to be curious what happens when we actually have salespeople asking for orders. So we're going to be making that investment as well. And then we're also going to invest in manufacturing to decrease our lead time.

We want to get our lead times down significantly.

Host: Speaking of precision, manual errors are a big issue in labs. So how does RoboCell ensure accuracy and flexibility, especially at scale?

Charlie: The value of the RoboCell automation is scientists create protocols. That's not our business. Our business is to optimize the throughput of those protocols.

And what automation does is those protocols are done exactly the same every time they're run. So it takes variability out and it optimizes the schedule. We use AI in actually optimizing schedule.

The scientists can put multiple prototypes into the system and then our AI-based scheduler and optimize and get the maximum throughput of the RoboCell. So all of this is done in a very consistent, predictable, and manageable process.

Host: Earlier you spoke about expansion. You've also teamed up with some top tier partners. So how do these collaborations support Celltrio's mission?

Charlie: The first major partnership was with Thermo Fisher. We were being requested for RoboCell for Europe. The European pharmaceutical companies were asking for our product.

We told them we don't have any presence in Europe yet. We're not going to sell the product where we don't have people to support it. And then Thermo Fisher came along and we formed a partnership.

And so they have been selling. We're taking advantage of their sales and their customer support infrastructure in Europe. So that's been very. And then Premier has a very strong presence in Asia. And so they're going to play a key part in helping us set up Celltrio Asia.

Host: So as we all know, innovations could be slow. So how do you balance breakthrough ideas with delivering practical solutions quickly?

Charlie: That's a really good question because here in the Silicon Valley, there's a lot of raw technology that emerges and then companies are started to commercialize that technology. There's always two big risks in startup companies commercializing technology. One is, can you commercialize it?

Is it viable? And two is, is there a market acceptance for the technology? And so when you're starting from scratch, those are big challenges.

And I've been in those situations. So I understand those challenges. What we did different at Celltrio is we found existing IP in Korea that already had been developed for a small Korean market.

And we acquired that IP. So the RoboCell in its early prototype stages and the RoboStore in its early stages were already developed to a certain extent. And so we were able to buy that technology.

We licensed it back to the company in Korea for the Korean market, but it gave us a running start. So literally in a matter of just a few years, we were shipping and installing RoboCells that would have taken many years to develop from scratch. So I think that I learned my lesson the hard way.

I like to get a running start on startups. And we think Celltrio was a good example of a good running start.

Host: Lastly, where do you see robotics in life sciences heading over the next five to 10 years? And how is Celltrio preparing for it?

Charlie: First of all, we're working with human cells so far, but I think we will be. We see this automation expanding to plant cells and to animal cells as well. So we see that happening in the next 10 years.

I think we're also going to see, right now, there's what I call islands of automation provided by companies like Celltrio. I think in the future, these islands and the big labs, pharma labs, are going to be integrated together into a cohesive workflow. I also see in the future more distribution of automation for cell culturing.

We're in cell and gene therapy work. And today, cell and gene therapy is done in major laboratories. And what I see in the future is the automated cell and gene therapy solutions being distributed out close to the patient.

So you don't have the high logistics costs of cryogenic storage and cryogenic shipping of cells. And so this distribution of automation can literally be all the way to the hospital in the future. And so I think that just getting the solution closer to the patient, there's a big economic driving force.

Host: I love the vision. And Charlie, this was incredible. Thanks for the insights and the engaging conversation, from real-world lab challenges to the future of robotics.

This episode had it all. So thank you so much once again.

Charlie: Thank you, Sayali. I enjoyed it. Thank you.

Host: And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to ExtraMile by WisdomPlexus. I'm your host, Sayali, signing off for today. Stay curious, stay inspired, and we'll catch you in the next episode.