Yamaha Motor Makes First International Delivery of CELL HANDLER 2 to U.S. Research Institute - Set for use in cutting-edge cancer research at Fred Hutch Cancer Center -

IWATA, June 16, 2025 -- Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Tokyo: 7272) has delivered the CELL HANDLER 2 cell picking and imaging system, which contributes to the efficiency and precision of new drug development research and testing, to Fred Hutch Cancer Center, a cancer research institute located in Seattle, Washington, United States, where it is expected to be used for research into rare cancers. This is the third delivery of the CELL HANDLER 2 and the first delivery outside of Japan.

Fred Hutch is a pioneering nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer research and treatment in the United States. It is internationally recognized for its research into cancers, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19. The CELL HANDLER 2 was recently delivered to the laboratory of Dr. Taran Gujral, Associate Professor in the Human Biology Division and Director of TRACER, the Transformative Rare Cancer Initiative at Fred Hutch. Rare cancers make up over 25% of all diagnoses but often lack timely diagnosis, research models, and standard-of-care treatments. Dr. Gujral's research addresses this by using advanced functional assays to identify FDA-approved drugs with the potential to become new therapeutics candidates. By automating the drug screening process, previously done manually, the CELL HANDLER 2 has the potential to streamline research workflows and help accelerate the discovery of potential therapies for these understudied and often overlooked diseases.

In March 2025, Yamaha Motor launched the CELL HANDLER 2 as the successor to the original CELL HANDLER cell picking and imaging system, which handles cells (or cell clusters)* and acquires data with high speed and precision. The CELL HANDLER 2 not only features the same high-speed high-accuracy picking functionality but also utilizes AI-powered automatic cell selection and automatically stitches together images of the area surrounding the cells to generate a tiled image. Additionally, it improves traceability by capturing images after cell suctioning. The CELL HANDLER 2 streamlines tasks in various research processes that require the handling of cells, enabling more precise operations and contributing to the creation of highly reliable data.
*Single cells or 3D cell structures, such as spheroids and organoids.

CELL HANDLER 2 delivered to Fred Hutch Cancer Center

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