Mitsui Chemicals debuts InnoCell P-Type plates to speed up organoid drug discovery

Supporting high-performance 3D model construction and high-precision, high-throughput efficacy evaluation

Mitsui Chemicals has officially released the InnoCell P-Type, an advanced adherent cell culture plate, expanding its InnoCell series as of October 1, 2026.

This new plate integrates the company’s proprietary, highly oxygen-permeable material with a unique surface treatment technology. By mimicking an in vivo environment, the InnoCell P-Type helps cells retain realistic biological functions. This breakthrough enhances the development of organoids and complex cell-tissue models, ultimately improving the accuracy of efficacy and toxicity testing to streamline drug discovery and screening.

Recently, the pharmaceutical industry has shifted its focus toward complex in vitro models that better mirror human biology and provide highly consistent results. 3D cell structures like organoids are leading this charge—helping scientists understand diseases, screen drugs for safety and effectiveness, and build patient-derived models to make personalized medicine a reality.

In 3D cell cultures, dense cell proliferation and thick tissue structures often restrict oxygen supply. This limitation can compromise cell function, undermine tissue uniformity, and reduce data reproducibility. Furthermore, adapting these models for drug discovery screening demands specialized environmental conditions that reliably support robust cultivation, continuous observation, high-quality image acquisition, and high-throughput testing.

Hidetoshi Masumoto, MD, PhD, at Kansai Medical University used InnoCell P-Type plates to culture human iPS cell-derived cardiac organoids. Compared with conventional polystyrene plates, InnoCell™ P-Type enabled the formation of tissues with more uniform overall thickness and increased tissue thickness. The cardiomyocyte layer, which was positive for the cardiac marker troponin T, also showed increased thickness and density in the tissue profile. These results indicate that enhancing oxygen supply to cultured tissues could provide an important option for constructing 3D cardiac tissue models.

Toshihiko Omote, Member of the Board, Managing Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Mitsui Chemicals, commented: “In recent years, drug discovery research has seen rapid growth in the use of 3D cell models, such as organoids and microphysiological systems, that more faithfully reproduce biological functions. InnoCell P-Type has been developed based on Mitsui Chemicals’ long-cultivated core technologies, and is expected to contribute to advances in the culture environments that underpin these cutting-edge studies.

We position InnoCell not simply as a culture plate, but as research infrastructure that supports improved productivity and predictability in drug discovery research. Going forward, we will continue to create new values in the life sciences field by leveraging our core technologies.”