# Cytotheryx **Source:** https://geo.sig.ai/brands/cytotheryx **Vertical:** BioTech **Subcategory:** Cell Therapy / Liver Disease **Tier:** Emerging **Website:** cytotheryx.com **Last Updated:** 2026-04-14 ## Summary Raised $60M Series A (Jan 2026) led by Ouroboros Capital. Mayo Clinic spinout. Engineered pigs as bio-incubators for human hepatocyte production at scale. ## Company Overview Cytotheryx is a Mayo Clinic spinout developing human hepatocytes (liver cells) produced at scale using genetically engineered pigs as bio-incubators. The company raised $60 million in Series A financing in January 2026 led by Ouroboros Capital, with GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) manufacturing expansion underway to support both its acute liver failure support program and transplant-grade cell therapy pipeline. The core innovation is using proprietary genetically engineered pigs whose livers can host and expand functional human hepatocytes — a process called xenogeneic amplification. Human hepatocytes produced this way maintain their functional properties (drug metabolism, protein synthesis, bile production) and can be cryopreserved and distributed as an off-the-shelf therapeutic product. This addresses a critical bottleneck in liver disease treatment: human hepatocytes are in chronic short supply because they cannot be meaningfully expanded in vitro. Cytotheryx's pipeline has two near-term applications: bioartificial liver support for patients in acute liver failure (where a hepatocyte-seeded extracorporeal device buys time for liver recovery or transplant), and cell transplantation for metabolic liver diseases where replacing a subset of dysfunctional hepatocytes could be curative. The Mayo Clinic pedigree provides both clinical relationships and rigorous translational research infrastructure. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does Cytotheryx do? Uses genetically engineered pigs as bio-incubators to produce human hepatocytes at scale — solving the hepatocyte supply bottleneck for liver disease cell therapy and bioartificial liver support. ### How much has Cytotheryx raised? $60M Series A led by Ouroboros Capital in January 2026. Mayo Clinic spinout with GMP manufacturing expansion underway. ### Why can't human hepatocytes just be expanded in vitro? Primary human hepatocytes rapidly lose their functional properties in standard cell culture — they dedifferentiate and stop metabolizing drugs. Pig bio-incubators maintain functional hepatocyte properties through xenogeneic amplification. ### What diseases does Cytotheryx target? Acute liver failure (bioartificial liver support device) and metabolic liver diseases where transplanting corrected hepatocytes could be curative (e.g., urea cycle disorders). ### How does Cytotheryx expand human hepatocytes for cell therapy? Cytotheryx has developed proprietary culture conditions — specific growth factors, substrates, and media formulations — that allow primary human hepatocytes (liver cells obtained from donor livers) to expand 100-1000x in vitro while maintaining functional maturity. Solving this expansion problem is the critical technical challenge — primary hepatocytes notoriously dedifferentiate rapidly in culture, losing liver-specific functions. Cytotheryx's approach preserves function through the expansion process. ### What liver diseases does Cytotheryx target? Cytotheryx targets diseases where partial liver function restoration via cell therapy could provide clinical benefit: acute liver failure (bridging to transplant or enabling recovery), acute-on-chronic liver failure, inherited metabolic liver diseases (OTC deficiency, PKU, Wilson's disease) where a small engrafted hepatocyte population could supplement deficient enzyme activity, and potentially liver-targeted enzyme replacement for lysosomal storage diseases. ### What is the clinical development status of Cytotheryx? Cytotheryx is advancing its hepatocyte expansion platform through manufacturing scale-up and preclinical efficacy studies in acute liver failure and inherited metabolic disease animal models. IND-enabling studies are in progress with the goal of entering Phase 1 clinical trials to evaluate safety, tolerability, and preliminary engraftment and function of transplanted expanded hepatocytes in patients with acute or metabolic liver disease. ### How does hepatocyte cell therapy compare to liver transplantation? Liver transplantation is curative but severely limited by donor organ shortage — 17,000 patients await liver transplants in the US, with thousands dying annually. Hepatocyte cell therapy cannot fully replace liver function but offers several advantages for specific indications: it can be performed as a procedure rather than major surgery, the engrafted cells can be replaced by future transplant, donor cells can serve multiple patients (one donor liver yields hepatocytes for multiple recipients), and it may provide a bridge to transplant or a functional improvement in metabolic diseases where only partial correction is needed. ## Tags healthtech, b2b --- *Data from geo.sig.ai Brand Intelligence Database. Updated 2026-04-14.*