A review of manufacturing capabilities of cell spheroid generation technologies and future development

Spheroid culture provides cells with a three-dimensional environment that can better mimic physiological conditions compared to monolayer culture. Technologies involved in the generation of cell spheroids are continuously being innovated to produce spheroids with enhanced properties. In this paper, we review the manufacturing capabilities of current cell spheroid generation technologies. We propose that spheroid generation technologies should enable tight and robust process controls to produce spheroids of consistent and repeatable quality. Future technology development for the generation of cell spheroids should look into improvement in process control, standardization, scalability and monitoring, in addition to advanced methods of spheroid transfer and characterization.