Nabiha Saklayen, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Cellino, a biotechnology company pioneering the world’s first fully automated, artificial intelligence (AI)–driven manufacturing technology for personalized induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)–derived therapies. Her vision is rooted in the belief that regenerative medicine can profoundly extend healthy human lifespan by enabling scalable access to personalized cell and tissue replacement therapies.
A physicist by training, Saklayen earned her doctorate in physics from Harvard University, where her work on laser-based intracellular delivery laid the foundation for Cellino’s technology. At Cellino, she led the integration of laser physics, optics and machine learning into biomanufacturing, an approach that recently earned one of the FDA’s first advanced manufacturing technology designation in regenerative medicine. This recognition validates the platform’s ability to address long-standing bottlenecks in cost, quality and scale that have limited access to cell therapies.
Saklayen has driven strategic collaborations worldwide, including a program in spinal cord injury, where Cellino-produced iPSCs were used to generate functional neural tissue. Most recently, she spearheaded a partnership with Mass General Brigham’s Gene and Cell Therapy Institute aimed at building the world’s first hospital-based autologous iPSC foundry at Massachusetts General Hospital. Powered by Cellino’s Nebula system, this decentralized biomanufacturing hub reflects a bold vision for delivering patient-specific therapies at the point of care.
At Harvard University, she trained as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International fellow. She has earned numerous accolades, including Forbes 30 Under 30, MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 New England.