08,21,2026 22 views
【Interview with Pharmaceutical Network Personnel】During the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society for Cell Biology (CSCB), Yokogawa Electric did something even more remarkable outside of its regular booth - organizing a special forum and inviting scholars from multiple countries including China, the United States, and Japan to give presentations and share purely on technological trends and real research pain points.
This approach of "not rushing to promote products and building platforms first" is quite in line with the tone of this century old enterprise.
After the meeting, we sat down with Amit Mittal, the head of Yokogawa Electric's Life Sciences Division and a senior executive with 16 years of experience in the Asian market, to talk about the technological barriers of high content imaging, the Chinese market, and how a century old industrial automation enterprise can find its own rhythm in the life sciences field.
Amit Mittal, Head of Yokogawa Electric's Life Sciences Division
Why hold a 'no sales' meeting?
When asked about the considerations for attending the conference, Amit Mittal's answer was very practical: the first step for multinational companies to establish a foothold in China is not to sell products, but to understand the market.
Yokogawa Electric started not too late in the field of life sciences. Starting from confocal imaging technology, they have been deeply involved in this field for more than 20 years and have accumulated a solid technical foundation. But technology does not equal market recognition, especially in the field of life sciences that heavily relies on trust and reputation.
So, they chose to invite global experts to China and set up a communication platform, allowing Chinese researchers to directly communicate with overseas professors, understand new technological trends, and also let people from Yokogawa sit down and listen to what Chinese users really need. Amit Mittal calls this' de commercialized technology exchange '- not promoting products, only discussing technology.
Only by truly understanding the market can we serve our customers well, "this sentence was repeatedly mentioned in the interview. It's not a clich é, but their current practical action logic in the Chinese market.
Why can dual turntable technology become a moat?
When it comes to products and technology, Amit Mittal's conversation box clearly opens up.
The technical barrier of Yokogawa Electric lies in the Dual Spin Disk dual disc confocal technology. This is not marketing rhetoric, but a tangible hardware advantage. Compared with mainstream single disc schemes in the market, dual disc schemes have significant advantages in light source utilization, imaging speed, and phototoxicity control. Simply put, it means seeing more clearly, shooting faster, and having less impact on live cells.
At present, Yokogawa has established a complete product matrix covering the CellVoyager series high content systems (CV8000, CQ1), SS2000 high content automatic subcellular sampling system, and SU10 cell intelligent minimally invasive injection system. At the product level, Amit Mittal emphasized a viewpoint: a good scientific research equipment must be a trinity of "high-end hardware+core technology+comprehensive services". Yokogawa Electric does not position itself as an equipment supplier, but rather as a provider of solutions.
CellVoyager CQ1 High Content Imaging Analysis System
The core advantage of the CellVoyager series of high content systems is the ability to achieve high-speed, high-resolution, and long-term dynamic tracking of live cells with extremely low phototoxicity. Taking CQ1 as an example, compared to traditional flow cytometry, it requires cells to be separated fromPetri dishDifferent from digestion and suspension treatments, CQ1 can directly perform 3D imaging and quantitative analysis on live cell clusters (such as 3D spheres, organoids), colonies, and tissue sections in culture vessels without destroying cells. The micro lens enhanced Nipkow disk confocal technology it is equipped with not only enables imaging speeds up to 20 frames per second, but also reduces the excitation light power requirement to an extremely low level, significantly reducing phototoxicity and photobleaching.
SS2000 High Content Automatic Subcellular Sampling System
The next step in imaging is the SS2000 high content automatic subcellular sampling system - which locks onto target single-cell or subcellular structures (such as mitochondria and lysosomes) under confocal image guidance, and completes minimally invasive extraction without destroying spatial position information. The extraction of samples can be directly integrated with single-cell sequencing or mass spectrometry analysis, demonstrating unique advantages in cutting-edge fields such as single-cell lipidomics and spatial transcriptomics.
SU10 Cell Intelligent Minimally Invasive Injection System
At the level of cell manipulation, the SU10 cell intelligent minimally invasive injection system extends Yokogawa Electric's technological capabilities to "precise rewriting". The core of SU10 is a nanotip with an outer diameter of only about 100 nanometerspipetteIt has extremely low physical damage to cells and can achieve true minimally invasive operation of live cells. From cell surface detection to puncture and injection, it only takes about 10 seconds and has been successfully applied to various cell types such as HeLa, HEK293, CHO, iPS cells, and primary neurons. SU10 can directly deliver gene editing tools, recombinant proteins, antibodies, nucleic acids, and other substances to the cytoplasm or nucleus of target single cells, which can be used for single-cell efficacy and toxicity evaluation of candidate drug molecules.
From "the headquarters the final say" to "the local team decides"
An interesting detail in the interview is that Yokogawa Electric's life science strategy for the China region has now been led by a local team in China.
This is very different from before. In the past, the headquarters set the direction and the China region executed it; Now, decision-making power has been delegated locally. The underlying reason is very direct: the market changes too quickly, and cross-border communication lags behind. Especially in the fields of AI and automation, the speed of technological iteration is calculated on a monthly basis, and by the time the headquarters approves it layer by layer, the window period may have already passed.
Based on this judgment, Yokogawa has chosen a localized cooperation strategy in China - collaborating with Chinese AI companies and automation vendors to develop solutions, rather than relying entirely on headquarters research and development. At present, we have established deep cooperation with local enterprises such as Huada Intelligent Manufacturing and Magnesium Technology, integrated upstream and downstream technologies, and built a multi omics ecosystem.
In terms of service system, Henghe has built an innovation center with Shanghai as the core, equipped with a full range of product demonstration platforms and a resident team of application scientists. Customers can do experimental design and customized development in Shanghai without the need for cross ocean docking. Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou and other industrial agglomeration cities have also laid out demonstration sites.
The model of "global technology+local response" is based on a clear judgment: China is already a large global life science market, and the quality and quantity of scientific research output are rapidly improving. To capture this market, it is not enough to rely solely on good products. Response speed and service depth are equally crucial.
Make China the world's top market
In Yokogawa Electric's GS2028 mid-term business plan, life sciences is positioned as the core strategic growth sector for the future. The reason is not difficult to understand - the traditional oil and gas chemical industry has slowed down its growth in the context of green energy transformation, while the contribution value of life sciences to society and human health continues to amplify.
Amit Mittal clearly stated a goal in the interview: to make China the world's number one market for Yokogawa Electric's life sciences business.
This goal is not small. But he also added, "Success is not just about how many devices you sell, but how many people are willing to work with you for a long time
From the fully booked forum on CSCB, to the continuous iteration and polishing of dual turntable technology over the past 20 years, and to the decentralization of localization decision-making power, every step taken by Yokogawa Electric in the Chinese market exudes a sense of "not in a hurry but very determined" rhythm. Establish oneself professionally and achieve success through trust. In an industry that values long termism, this may be a simple yet effective way of survival.
