23 February 2018 - - Boston, Massachusetts-based human biology specialist Emulate, Inc. has formed a strategic partnership with Basel, Switzerland-based biotech company Roche (SIX: RO) (OTCQX: RHHBY) that will use Emulate's Human Emulation System across R and D programs to enable more human-relevant studies that will lead to earlier and better prediction of safety and efficacy of drug candidates, the company said.
The Human Emulation System is a lab-ready system comprised of Organ-Chips, instrumentation, and software apps used to discover and develop new classes of therapeutic antibodies and drug combinations, many of which have complexities and human-specific features.
The partnership is designed to use Organ-Chips that reflect the complex biology required to model the effects of therapeutic antibodies in humans, overcoming the limitations of current preclinical experimental methods.
Emulate's Organ-Chips recreate the complex, dynamic state in which cells function within a human organ. Immune cells can also be introduced into Organ-Chips, which allows for human-relevant testing of antibodies and drug combinations.
Other components of the partnership include using Organ-Chips to gain further insight into disease mechanisms, to increase predictability and early detection of biomarkers, and to reduce the use of animals in scientific testing.
An additional goal of the partnership is to use patient-derived cells in Organ-Chips to make progress with strategies for personalized drug safety and allow a new approach to augment the prediction of disease or treatment variation between individuals.
Through this three-year research partnership, scientists from both companies will work side-by-side, initially within Emulate's labs in Boston.
This partnership features an innovative approach based in a jointly-run lab at Emulate where scientists will work together to use Organ-Chips for testing of efficacy and safety of new antibody therapeutics and combination therapies.
Emulate will provide its technology along with the scientific expertise to implement a range of experimental designs for evaluating Roche's drug candidates.
The collaborative research will initially focus on using Emulate's Lung-Chip and Brain-Chip, with the opportunity to expand to use other Organ-Chips.
Privately held Emulate creates living products for understanding how diseases, medicines, chemicals, and foods affect human health. Its Human Emulation System is being used to advance product innovation, design, and safety across a range of applications including drug development, agriculture, cosmetics, food, and chemical-based consumer products.
The company is developing a wide range of Organ-Chips and disease models through collaborations with industry partners and internal R and D programs, and is working with clinical partners to produce Organ-Chips personalised with an individual patient's stem cells, for applications in precision medicine and personalised health.