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Organs-On-Chip Startup Signs On Roche, Takeda

Roche and Takeda are now buying into the Boston-based Organ-on-Chip start-up, Emulate, to amp their game.

Emulate and Roche have formed a three-year partnership to use organ-chips for testing the efficacy and safety of new antibody therapeutics and combination therapies.

Its partnership with Takeda will use Emulate’s intestine-chip in the R&D of drugs to treat gastrointestinal (GI) diseases. The intestine-chip can be used to recreate the mechanisms of the intestinal lining, which is understood to be associated with many GI diseases.

Emulate’s chips are engineered to recreate the environment cells might experience in the human body, introducing mechanical forces that mimic breathing, for example. The plastic chips, about the size of a computer thumb drive, are designed to hold human cells and blood so scientists can test medicines on tissues that are unique to different organs.

We are making very fast progress,” said Geraldine A. Hamilton, president and chief scientific officer of Emulate. “We’re addressing this huge need in the pharmaceutical industry to have more human elements to predict both safety and efficacy.”

Roche will use Emulate’s Human Emulation System across multiple R&D programs in a three-year partnership, with the aim of discovering and

developing new classes of therapeutic antibodies and drug combinations.

Takeda and Emulate will be involved in studies focussed on R&D programs where the Intestine-Chip can offer unique insights into the biological mechanisms of the intestinal epithelium, which is understood to be associated with key aspects of many GI diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease.

The ability to accurately recreate the human intestinal epithelium is a key to opening up new insights into the complex pathways of GI diseases and drug mechanisms of action, and we are delighted to apply our Intestine-Chip to support drug innovation with Takeda, a world leader in developing treatments for GI diseases,” said Geraldine A. Hamilton, PhD, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Emulate. “We welcome this partnership with Takeda to work with them to use our Intestine-Chip as a human-relevant testing system that can be used for drug discovery and development to lead to better, safer medicines for debilitating GI diseases.

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