Emulate, Roche partner to apply organ-chips to drug efficacy and safety

The partnership will use Emulate’s Human Emulation System across R&D programs to allow more human-relevant studies that will result in earlier and better prediction of safety and efficacy of drug candidates. 

The Human Emulation System is a lab-ready system which includes Organ-Chips, instrumentation, and software apps.

Roche will apply the system across its R&D programs to enable more human-relevant studies, which will help in better prediction of safety and efficacy of drug candidates.

Emulate’s organ-chips are said to recreate the complex and active state in which cells function within a human organ. Immune cells can also be placed into organ-chips for human-relevant testing of antibodies and drug combinations.

The partnership will also use organ-chips to study disease mechanisms, detect biomarkers and reduce the use of animals in scientific testing.

The patient-derived cells in organ-chips will be used for assessing personalized drug safety, in addition to enhancing the prediction of disease or treatment variation between individuals.

Under the three-year research partnership, the scientists from both companies will work together at Emulate’s labs in Boston. They will use organ-chips to test efficacy and safety of new antibody therapeutics and combination therapies.

Emulate will offer technology and scientific expertise to implement a range of experimental designs for assessing Roche’s drug candidates.

Emulate’s organ-chips will help in addressing the human-specific nature of antibodies and studying the disease-driving pathways that involve the human immune system,.

The organ-chips will also help in new human-specific biomarker identification and drug discovery and addressing the personalized drug safety with patient-derived cells.

Emulate president and chief scientific officer Geraldine Hamilton said: “Our approach is to start with the patient and end with the patient by using patient-derived cells with Organ-Chips.

“As we produce more human-relevant data with our organ-chips, we look forward to making a positive impact on informing R&D decisions, reducing drug candidate attrition in human clinical trials, and helping to deliver better and safer medicines to patients.”