Auperon delivers Van Heron Labs' cellular intelligence platform as a productized service. Send us your data. We deliver a full digital twin, prioritized recommendations, and mechanism-backed insight. Fixed scope. Fixed price. Fixed timeline.
Auperon reads what your cells are actually doing — the mechanisms behind the performance you're seeing at the bench. If you're stuck on any of these, we can help.
"My titer plateaus and I don't know why."
Multi-omic characterization tells you what's actually rate-limiting — from nutrient depletion to stress signatures to metabolic shifts. Not "add more of X" — mechanism-level explanations you can act on.
"My cells lose potency during expansion — and I don't know when or why."
Auperon surfaces early biomarkers of quality loss, stress response signatures, and the specific media components driving them. From MSCs to Tregs to iPSCs, we work with the cell types manufacturing teams actually struggle with.
"I need to move from serum to CDM without losing performance."
Serum isn't magic — it's solving multiple problems at once (ion delivery, chelation, solubilization, cofactor "contamination"). We identify what serum was providing that your CDM lacks, so you can replace it with defined components.
"My cell system is too new for standard tools to say anything useful."
Embryoid models. Novel iPSC differentiation paths. First-of-kind therapeutic modalities. Auperon works from the transcriptome up, so we can surface mechanistic insight on cell systems even when the field has no established playbook.
No sales cycle. No custom contracts. No months of negotiation. Auperon is a productized service — you pick your tier, send your data, and we get to work.
Three transparent tiers priced by conditions analyzed. Iteration included. IP-protected terms at Tier 3.
Same dayUpload your RNA-seq FASTQs. Detailed prep guidelines on our Science page. Need help with sequencing? We'll route you to a Van Heron Labs full-service engagement.
DaysMulti-omic characterization, biological digital twin, prioritized recommendations — grounded in the same platform that serves Van Heron Labs' enterprise customers.
2–8 weeksFull report delivered. Interactive digital twin — continued access. Actionable specifications. Mechanism-level explanation for everything.
On scheduleEvery Auperon project — regardless of tier — includes the same three core deliverables. Higher tiers add depth, iteration support, and integrated specifications for full process optimization.
Full multi-omic characterization of your cell system — expression signatures, metabolic pathways, reactome, function enrichment, lineage diagnosis. Tier 3 adds proteomics and metabolomics.
Your cells as a queryable model — with continued access. Compare conditions, simulate scenarios, test interventions in silico — before you commit anything to the bench.
Actionable next steps ranked by expected impact — including biomarker candidates and existing-molecule modulator identifications for your cells' actual biology, with mechanism-level explanation for each. Tier 2+ delivers recommendations as specifications with ranges and rationale.
Four case studies from Auperon's platform work across iPSCs, MSCs, Tregs, and novel embryoid models. Different customers, different questions — same mechanism-level approach.
"How do we optimize our prototype iPSC media to outperform commercial standards — and yield higher-quality HSCs when we later trigger differentiation?"
Why this matters. Generating bona fide, transplantable HSCs from iPSCs remains one of the biggest unsolved problems in regenerative medicine — every mechanism-level optimization at the pre-differentiation stage compounds into the final HSC yield when differentiation is eventually triggered.
Customer: A leading commercial supplier of human cell products for regenerative medicine and cell therapy applications (repeat Auperon customer).
"How do we optimize TIL differentiation and shorten our expansion protocol — without sacrificing therapeutic potential — for precision cancer treatment?"
Why this matters. The FDA's 2024 approval of lifileucel (Amtagvi) — the first cellular therapy approved for any solid tumor — validated TIL therapy for advanced melanoma and opened a path forward for other cancers. But the field faces a persistent tension: shorter expansion protocols mean faster patient access and lower manufacturing costs, while longer protocols risk immune exhaustion, dysfunction, and reduced therapeutic potency. Every day cut from a 22-day manufacturing process is meaningful — for cost, for patient wait time, and for the population of patients TIL therapy can practically reach.
Customer: A leading cell therapy manufacturing center advancing TIL therapy for solid tumor indications. Commercial partner name protected under confidentiality.
"How can multi-omic analysis identify novel media additive candidates that improve viability, expansion, and FOXP3 stability for a cGMP Treg expansion protocol for autologous ulcerative colitis therapy?"
Why this matters. Ulcerative colitis affects millions with debilitating chronic inflammation. Autologous Treg cell therapy represents a promising alternative to lifelong immunosuppression — but the inflammatory milieu of UC specifically downregulates FOXP3 expression, causing Tregs to transdifferentiate into pro-inflammatory effector T cells. Manufacturing a Treg product that maintains stability and function in the gut environment is one of the field's central technical challenges.
Study type: BD-driven Auperon Tier 2 workflow — we ran this analysis on our own capital to demonstrate what mechanism-level insight could contribute to leading Treg cell therapy programs pursuing UC-specific applications.
"How do we optimize our chemically-defined MSC media to match the performance of our serum-containing formulation — and eliminate vacuole formation in a variant showing this issue?"
Why this matters. MSC therapies span 850+ clinical trials in regenerative medicine, but the industry's shift from serum-containing to chemically-defined media remains a critical bottleneck for clinical translation and cost — and figuring out what serum was actually providing that CDM lacked is a mechanism-level question, not an empirical screening one.
Customer: A leading commercial supplier of human MSCs for cell therapy applications.
A lot of things try to solve cellular characterization. Here's how Auperon differs from what you might already be using.
Not a bioinformatics contract shop.
Auperon is a productized cellular intelligence platform. Fixed tiers, fixed timelines, mechanism-level output — not per-hour billing or open-ended engagements.
Not a black-box AI tool.
Auperon is mechanism-transparent. Every recommendation comes with biology-level explanation. You know what's driving the insight and can defend it internally.
Not a slow-services engagement.
Auperon is the productized entry point to Van Heron Labs' cellular intelligence platform. Same rigor, same team, same platform — designed for teams who need answers in weeks, not quarters.
Not a shop designing new molecules for you to qualify.
Auperon is biology-first. We surface what your cells already need — existing molecules, characterized components, mechanism-level insight. Novel IP in the analysis and identifications you take with you. No new chemistry to qualify or clear.
Fixed scope. Fixed price. Fixed timeline. Iteration included. Novel IP in your analysis and identifications — using existing, characterized components. IP-protected terms at Tier 3 for teams ready to co-develop with Van Heron Labs.
Auperon is the productized entry point to Van Heron Labs' cellular intelligence platform — designed for teams who need answers in weeks, not quarters. When your work is ready for exclusive formulations, deeper co-development, or IP-protected engagement, Van Heron Labs is the natural next step.