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Emulate, Inc. has introduced the Chip-R1™ Rigid Chip, a new model designed to improve biological modeling for ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion) and toxicology applications. This chip minimizes drug absorption by using low-drug-absorbing plastics, allowing for more accurate predictions of human drug responses. The design modification includes an improved vascular channel that better simulates the physiological shear stress, which is essential for applications such as immune cell recruitment. It also features a thinner membrane with smaller pores to enhance cellular interactions and replicate the in vivo environment more effectively.
The new Chip-R1 has a preactivated tissue culture membrane, simplifying the user workflow and reducing the imaging distance, which expands compatibility with microscopy. This change makes it especially useful for studying drug-induced toxicity in organs like the liver and kidney, where mechanical stretch isn't needed. It retains key elements of Emulate’s Organ-on-a-Chip technology, such as co-culture modeling and independent perfusion channels. These features help simulate complex tissue interactions and provide more reliable results for drug testing.
Emulate’s new Chip-R1 aims to enhance the testing of small molecule drugs, especially lipophilic ones, and is particularly beneficial in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics studies where consistent and predictable drug exposure is crucial. The technology is already being used to improve hepatotoxicity detection and broaden the applicability of Organ-Chip models. The chip is well-suited for organ models that do not require stretching, offering more precision in non-stretching organs like the liver.
The company, Emulate, was founded at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and has since advanced in offering tools that emulate human biology for research purposes. Emulate’s technology assists scientists in multiple fields, including academia, pharmaceuticals, and government, helping predict human responses with greater accuracy than traditional animal models. The Chip-R1 release represents another step in the evolution of this cutting-edge technology, helping expand the use of Organ-Chips in scientific research.
Emulate's approach provides new insights into drug safety and efficacy by allowing researchers to simulate real human organ responses. The company's products are particularly impactful in applications such as cancer research, immunology, and toxicology, where accurate modeling of human physiology is crucial. The release of Chip-R1 is expected to drive further advances in drug development, particularly in testing the safety of compounds before they are used in clinical trials.
