Portal accelerates growth with latest $9M round led by NFX, an expanded DARPA contract, and broad adoption!
Portal accelerates growth with latest $9M round led by NFX, an expanded DARPA contract, and broad adoption!
CellPore and Portal Gateway are both microfluidic mechanoporation systems: cells flow through a narrow constriction that briefly opens the membrane, cargo diffuses into the cytosol, and the membrane reseals. No electroporation, no viral vectors. They share a scientific origin, too — both descend from the cell-squeezing work of Armon Sharei, who co-invented the approach at MIT and built it at SQZ Biotech, the company whose technology STEMCELL Technologies now sells as CellPore. Sharei founded Portal in 2023 to rebuild that same core physics as versatile delivery infrastructure for cell engineering and drug discovery.
The key split is in the hardware and the roadmap. Portal Gateway is a self-contained benchtop instrument that runs cell-tuned chips across a broad menu of cell types, and it shares one delivery core with Galaxy-i for automated high-throughput screening and MilliBooster for GMP clinical manufacturing. CellPore is a research-use-only system that runs on a separately purchased gas tank (a compressed-air cylinder) with cartridges locked to a cell class.
Bottom line: Gateway does everything CellPore does — the same gentle mechanoporation, on the same immune and stem cells, at the same throughput — and then keeps going: no separate air supply, a wider cell and cargo range, multiplexed delivery, and one method that carries straight through to high-throughput screening and GMP manufacturing — which is where CellPore stops.
How the two systems line up across setup, cell and cargo range, and the path from research to the clinic.
Portal Gateway | CellPore | |
|---|---|---|
Delivery method | Microfluidic mechanoporation — cells deform through defined pores | Microfluidic mechanoporation — Cell Squeeze |
Origin | Portal Bio, founded 2023 by Armon Sharei (co-inventor of cell squeezing) | Cell Squeeze from SQZ Biotech (Sharei co-invention); sold by STEMCELL Technologies |
Instrument | Compact, self-contained benchtop unit; fits in a hood | Benchtop unit that runs on a separate compressed-air supply |
Gas tank | Not required — self-contained | Required — a separate compressed-gas cylinder, bought from a third party, not included |
Consumable & chips | Booster cartridges with pore sizes tuned to your specific cell, on one instrument | Cartridges by cell class — Cartridge 300 (immune), Cartridge 500 (stem cells) |
Cell types | T, B, NK, monocytes, dendritic, iPSC, HSC (CD34+), MSC, cancer lines, and more — new types on request | Immune cells (T, NK, B, monocytes, PBMC), CD34+ HSPCs, iPSC/ESC |
Cargo | mRNA, siRNA, saRNA, CRISPR RNP, proteins & peptides, small molecules, nanoparticles, antibodies, nanoplasmid, and more | Nucleic acids, proteins, small molecules |
Multiplexed cargo | Up to 3 cargoes at once — 85% triple-positive in primary human T cells | Not specified |
Validated use cases | Gene editing, mRNA & protein delivery, multiplexed cargo, drug-discovery screening, clinical manufacturing | Research transfection of immune & stem cells |
Throughput | >10 million cells / sec | Up to 10 million cells / sec |
High-throughput screening | Galaxy-i — automated in-line boosting into 96-/384-well plates; retrofits existing dispensers | Not offered |
Clinical / GMP scale | MilliBooster — >1 billion cells/min, closed-system; integrates with Lovo & Rotea | Research use only |
Mechanoporation is a physical way to get molecules into cells. Cells flow through a precisely sized constriction that deforms the membrane and opens transient pores; the cargo — an mRNA, a CRISPR ribonucleoprotein, a protein, a peptide — diffuses into the cytosol, and the membrane reseals within seconds. It is vector-free and reagent-free. Mechanoporation is the current term for the microfluidic "cell squeezing" approach Armon Sharei invented, and Portal Gateway is its second generation.
Because the disruption is mechanical rather than electrical or chemical, it spares cells the stress that electroporation and lipid reagents can cause. In a head-to-head study, cells delivered by mechanoporation kept gene-expression profiles closer to untreated controls, with significantly fewer misregulated genes than electroporated cells at both 6 and 24 hours (DiTommaso et al., PNAS 2018). For sensitive cells — resting T cells, NK cells, stem cells — that gentler handling is often the whole reason to use it.
CellPore is a microfluidic transfection system sold by STEMCELL Technologies. It uses Cell Squeeze mechanoporation: compressed air pushes cells through parallel microfluidic channels to open transient membrane pores so nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules can enter the cytosol. CellPore is offered for research-use-only applications and can process up to 10 million cells per second.
Its consumables are single-use Delivery Cartridges matched to a cell class — Cartridge 300 for immune cells such as T, NK, B cells, monocytes, PBMCs, and CD34+ HSPCs, and Cartridge 500 for pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs and ESCs). Running the instrument requires a separate compressed-gas tank (a compressed-air cylinder), which STEMCELL notes is purchased separately from a third-party supplier and is not included. The technology originated at SQZ Biotech and came to STEMCELL through its acquisition of that platform.
Portal Gateway is a benchtop mechanoporation instrument from Portal Bio. Cells and cargo flow together through a single-use Booster cartridge whose cores carry a defined pore size, while the instrument controls the pressure that deforms each cell. Two variables — cell speed and pore size — are tuned to the cell type, so the trade-off between delivery and viability sits on a dial the user sets, rather than being locked to a pre-defined fixed setting.
We have validated Gateway across primary and immortalized cells: T cells (CD4+, CD8+, and CAR-T), B cells, NK cells, monocytes, dendritic cells, iPSCs, HSCs, MSCs, and cancer lines, with new cell types added on request. In primary human T cells, we've delivered three cargoes at once — a CRISPR RNP, an mRNA, and dextran — in the same cells at 85% triple-positive, and edit genes and express mRNA efficiently in both resting and activated T cells. Gateway is in use at more than 100 organizations, including 7 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, and the approach backs an $8M DARPA program for portable cell-therapy manufacturing.
Yes — they share an inventor. Armon Sharei co-invented microfluidic cell squeezing as a graduate researcher at MIT (Sharei et al., PNAS 2013), then built it into a therapeutics platform as founder and CEO of SQZ Biotech. That first-generation Cell Squeeze technology is what STEMCELL Technologies now sells as CellPore.
In 2023, Sharei founded Portal to take the same core physics and rebuild it as a versatile delivery infrastructure — engineered for standalone operation, multiplexed cargo, and a straight path from the research bench to GMP manufacturing. Portal Gateway is that second-generation platform: the same mechanoporation principle, re-engineered around what first-generation squeezing couldn't do. The standalone instrument, the multiplexed delivery, the screening and GMP path — those are the parts the earlier system never had.
The platform they share is similar; the range built on it is not. Portal has launched across virtually every cell type used in cell engineering, with data spanning gene editing, mRNA and protein delivery, multiplexed cargo, and drug-discovery screening. CellPore has stayed narrow: immune and pluripotent stem cells, research use only.
Portal Gateway is a self-contained benchtop unit that fits inside a biosafety hood, so setup is the instrument plus a cartridge. CellPore runs on a separate compressed-gas tank — a compressed-air cylinder that STEMCELL notes must be bought from a third party and is not included — an extra piece of pressurized equipment to source, store, and handle on the bench. Fewer utilities means a shorter path from unboxing to first delivery.
Anything CellPore delivers, Gateway delivers too — the difference is how far the menu extends. Portal has validated a broad range of primary and immortalized cells and a long cargo list — from mRNA, siRNA, and CRISPR RNPs to proteins, peptides, nanoparticles, antibodies, and nanoplasmid DNA — and adds new cell types on request. CellPore documents nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules across immune and pluripotent stem cells: a subset of the range Gateway already covers.
Portal tunes pore size to your specific cell on a single instrument, pairing it with an adjustable pressure to hit the delivery-versus-viability balance each cell type needs. CellPore organizes this by cartridge line: Cartridge 300 for immune cells and Cartridge 500 for stem cells. If your work spans cell classes, that difference is the gap between changing a setting and changing a product line.
This is the clearest divide. CellPore is a research-use-only system. Portal enables one delivery method across three scales: Gateway for research, Galaxy-i for automated high-throughput screening — in-line boosting into 96- and 384-well plates — and MilliBooster for GMP manufacturing at clinical scale, in a closed system that integrates with common cell-processing instruments like Fresenius Kabi's Lovo and Thermo Fisher's Rotea.
The payoff is method continuity. A program that starts on Gateway does not have to re-validate a brand-new delivery method to reach a screen or a clinical batch, because the physics that worked at the bench is the physics running in the manufacturing suite.
Start with the overlap: on the fundamentals CellPore competes on — gentle mechanoporation, immune and stem cells, up to ~10 million cells per second — Gateway matches it. From there, the two diverge in one direction only.
Gateway adds what CellPore doesn't offer: a self-contained instrument with no separate air supply, pore sizes tuned across a wider cell and cargo range on one system, multiplexed delivery of up to three cargoes at once, automated high-throughput screening through Galaxy-i, and a GMP manufacturing path through MilliBooster. CellPore is research-use-only, and stops there.
Is Portal Gateway better than CellPore?
On capability, Gateway is a superset of CellPore. Both use gentle microfluidic mechanoporation at up to roughly 10 million cells per second, but Gateway also runs without a separate compressed-air supply, tunes across a wider range of cells and cargo, delivers up to three cargoes at once, and scales through Galaxy-i for high-throughput screening and MilliBooster for GMP manufacturing. CellPore is offered for research use only. Every workload CellPore handles, Gateway handles too.
Is CellPore the same as Portal Gateway?
No. They are separate products from separate companies, but they share a scientific origin. Both are microfluidic mechanoporation systems descended from the cell-squeezing work of Armon Sharei. CellPore commercializes the first-generation Cell Squeeze technology through STEMCELL Technologies; Portal Gateway is the second-generation platform Sharei founded Portal to build.
Is Portal's mechanoporation the same as cell squeezing?
Yes. Portal Gateway uses mechanoporation — the same physical principle as the "cell squeezing" method Armon Sharei invented at MIT, where cells deform through a constriction, transient membrane pores open, and cargo diffuses into the cytosol. Gateway is the second generation of that approach, built by the same inventor.
Who makes CellPore, and who makes Portal Gateway?
CellPore is sold by STEMCELL Technologies, which acquired the Cell Squeeze technology that originated at SQZ Biotech. Portal Gateway is made by Portal Bio, the company Armon Sharei founded in 2023 after SQZ.
Does Portal Gateway need a gas tank or compressed air?
No. Portal Gateway is a self-contained benchtop instrument, with no separate gas tank to install. CellPore, by contrast, runs on a compressed-gas tank — a compressed-air cylinder that STEMCELL notes is bought separately from a third-party supplier and is not included.
Can either system be used for GMP or clinical manufacturing?
Portal's MilliBooster is a GMP-ready clinical consumable that processes more than 1 billion cells per minute in a closed system and integrates with instruments such as Fresenius Kabi's Lovo and Thermo Fisher's Rotea. CellPore is offered for research-use-only applications.
How does mechanoporation compare to electroporation?
Both open the membrane to let cargo in, but mechanoporation does it mechanically rather than with an electric field. In a published comparison, mechanoporated cells kept gene-expression profiles closer to untreated controls, with significantly fewer misregulated genes than electroporated cells at 6 and 24 hours (DiTommaso et al., PNAS 2018) — which tends to matter most for sensitive primary cells.
Can Portal Gateway run high-throughput screens?
Yes. Galaxy-i adds automated in-line boosting to existing dispensing instruments, delivering cargo into pre-plated 96- and 384-well formats so a Gateway workflow scales up to library screening without switching delivery methods.
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