Mechanism-level cellular intelligence — delivered as a productized service. Send us your RNA-seq. We deliver a biological digital twin, prioritized recommendations, and mechanism-backed insight for your process. Fixed scope. Fixed price. Fixed timeline.
Auperon reads what your cells are actually doing — the mechanisms behind the performance you're seeing. If you're stuck on any of these, we can help.
"My titer plateaus and I don't know why."
Titer, specific productivity (qP), protein quality, glycosylation, aggregation — Auperon reads what's actually rate-limiting, from nutrient depletion to stress signatures to metabolic shifts. Not "add more of X" — mechanism-level explanations connecting your cells' biology to your final product's structure, function, and CQAs.
"My cells lose potency during expansion — and I don't know when or why."
Memory vs. effector balance, activation phenotype, persistence markers, potency retention — Auperon surfaces the mechanisms behind what your cells become and how long they stay that way. Early biomarkers of quality loss, stress response signatures, and the specific media components driving them. From MSCs to Tregs to iPSCs, TILs to CAR-T programs, 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", growth factor identity). We identify what serum was providing that your CDM lacks, so you can replace it with defined components and hit consistent batch performance for clinical translation.
"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, surfacing mechanism of action, novel biomarker candidates, and target discovery on cell systems even when the field has no established playbook.
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.
You pick your tier, send your data, and we get to work.
Three transparent tiers priced by conditions analyzed. Iteration included.
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.
DaysMulti-omic characterization, biological digital twin, prioritized recommendations — grounded in the same platform powers Van Heron Labs.
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, large and small molecule needs, growth factors and cytokines, stress pathways, metabolic pathways, function enrichment, lineage diagnosis.
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 — biomarker candidates and existing-molecule modulator identifications targeting the outcomes you care about: titer and protein quality; potency, persistence, and memory phenotype; chemically-defined performance; novel biology characterization. Mechanism-level explanation for each. Tier 2+ delivers recommendations as specifications with ranges and rationale.
Eight case studies from Auperon's platform work across cell & gene therapy, mammalian bioprocessing, microbial fermentation, recombinant protein, chemically-defined media, and novel biology. Different customers, different questions — same mechanism-level approach.
"How do we optimize our prototype iPSC media to outperform commercial standards — and yield higher-quality target stem cell populations when we later trigger differentiation?"
Why this matters. Generating transplantable target stem cell populations 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 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 particular stress phenotypes 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, especially for 3D culture, 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.
"How do we design a chemically-defined culture supplement that outperforms serum for HEK-based recombinant protein and vaccine antigen production — and prove it scales beyond a single cell line?"
Why this matters. HEK293 remains the workhorse for viral vector, vaccine antigen (RBD, spike proteins), and recombinant protein production. But serum dependency is a persistent scaling and cost bottleneck — batch variability, supply constraints, regulatory friction. Designing a chemically-defined supplement that matches or beats serum performance is a mechanism-level problem, not a formulation screening one.
Completed in partnership with Foresight Biosciences.
"Can we materially boost recombinant protein titer in E. coli — for both structural proteins and reporter cassettes — without re-engineering the strain, vector, or induction system?"
Why this matters. E. coli remains the highest-throughput host for recombinant protein production — from pharma-grade collagen to research reagents to vaccine antigens. Titer optimization traditionally means costly strain engineering, cassette redesign, or extensive fermentation DoE. A supplement-only intervention that drives 3–5X titer improvement without touching the biology bypasses months of downstream work.
Completed in partnership with UTMB Health (recombinant collagen study).
"Can we design a chemically-defined culture medium and a universal fermentation additive that consistently outperforms LB across E. coli variants, bacterial species, and third-party validation?"
Why this matters. LB broth is a black box. It works because it works — but its undefined composition creates lot-to-lot variability, complicates regulatory paths for GMP-adjacent applications, and blocks systematic optimization. A chemically-defined replacement AND a universal additive that improves fermentation across strains would collapse cost, variability, and time-to-scale simultaneously.
Multi-partner engagement including third-party validation by Ourobio and Arzeda. Individual programs remain under confidentiality.
"Can we design a chemically-defined, serum-free supplement that matches or exceeds FBS performance for primary mouse myoblasts?"
Why this matters. The cultured meat industry's economic viability depends on replacing FBS. Fetal bovine serum is expensive, supply-constrained, undefined, and philosophically incompatible with the product it's used to produce. Mouse myoblasts serve as an accessible model system for developing and validating serum-free formulations before moving to production cell lines. But primary muscle cell performance in serum-free media has historically fallen short on both growth rate and morphology. A defined replacement that hits both metrics unlocks the next stage of formulation work.
Cultured meat program (commercial partner protected under confidentiality).
Fixed scope. Fixed price. Fixed timeline. Iteration included. Novel IP in your analysis and identifications — using existing, characterized components. Tier 3 is for teams ready to co-develop with Van Heron Labs.
A 30-minute conversation with Rebecca Vaught, PhD to walk through how Auperon maps to your specific cell system, project stage, and challenges. Case study review, pricing questions, IP terms — everything on the table.
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, Van Heron Labs is the natural next step.