By closing the Universal Cells Seattle location, Astellas is reportedly consolidating cell therapy, gene therapy and oncology research at its South San Francisco, California, and Westborough, Massachusetts, sites.
Update (April 14): This story has been updated to include information from a statement provided by Astellas to BioSpace regarding the reason for and timing of the closure.
Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma will close the Seattle office of Universal Cells, its wholly owned subsidiary that creates engineered, allogeneic stem cells, a move that will affect 50 employees. A handful of affected staffers’ positions will be moved to the pharma’s other research locations in South San Francisco, California, and Westborough, Massachusetts, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice.
While the 50 employees are slated for layoffs, those who take internal transfer opportunities or other roles with another Astellas corporate affiliate prior to their separation date won’t be let go as part of the cuts, according to the notice. The workforce reduction will be effective in multiple waves starting July 1, 2026, and ending April 1, 2028.
Regarding the reason for the closure, a company spokesperson told BioSpace in an emailed statement that the pharma is consolidating cell and gene therapy and oncology research activities in Seattle into its South San Francisco and Westborough sites. They noted that research work conducted at the Seattle site will transition over the next two years, with site closure completion anticipated by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027.
The decision is part of Astellas’ efforts to align its research and development organization for long-term sustainability, according to the spokesperson. The statement cited Astellas’ desire to become more efficient in its research footprint, strengthen scientific collaboration, concentrate critical capabilities and ensure its research platforms remain “competitive, scalable, and positioned for long-term impact.”
BioSpace has asked Astellas for clarification on the status of a second Universal Cells location in Japan. In late 2024, the pharma eliminated 24 roles at Universal’s Seattle office but said at the time it would move 12 of them to a new site opening at an Astellas research campus in Tsukuba, Japan. That site was reportedly to serve as Universal’s second location.
Astellas acquired Universal Cells in 2018 for $102.5 million. The move gave the pharma access to Universal’s universal donor cell technology to create cell therapy products that did not require human leukocyte antigen matching, which could reduce the risk of stem cell rejection.
Universal Cells launched in January 2013 and announced its first partnership, with Adaptimmune, in 2015. The two companies agreed to collaborate to develop allogeneic T cell therapies. According to its website, Universal’s current partners, aside from Astellas Pharma and the Astellas Institute of Regenerative Medicine, are Blue Rock Therapeutics, UHN and Xyphos.
