Emulate is the leading supplier of the next generation in vitro Biological model. Researchers use their organ chip technology to understand and predict drug response, which is more precise and detailed than traditional cell culture or animal-based methods. CEO Jim Corbett talked about Emulate’s business in response to an e-mail question.
Why did you join Emulate?
Through Emulate, I saw one of the rare opportunities to bring truly game-changing technology to the healthcare field. Organ Chips are ready to redefine how we evaluate the safety, effectiveness and overall success rate of drug development. For the first time, this technology can provide researchers with a superior alternative to the use of laboratory animals in the drug development process, and bring better treatments to patients faster.
Jim Corbett
What specific needs/problems are you seeking to solve in the healthcare sector?
Today, with the advent of tools such as genome sequencing and the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to power our expanding knowledge of human biology, the pace of drug discovery is accelerating. However, pharmaceutical companies still need to bring potential therapies in their product lines to the market, and this extremely inefficient process has not changed for decades.
By 2021, it will still take a long time and too much capital to successfully bring a drug to the market—usually 10 years or more, and the cost may rise to US$2 billion. Once it enters the clinic, the failure rate of new drugs is also ridiculously high, some estimate it is as high as 90%.This is because animal models basically cannot predict human responses well due to species differences, but they still rely heavily on them Predict the safety and effectiveness of drugs before human trials.
In order to overcome the challenge of using tools with low predictive capabilities, Biopharmaceutical companies around the world are seeking to reduce, improve, and eventually replace animal models used in preclinical drug development, toxicology research, and disease modeling to save time, reduce costs, and improve the predictability of clinical trials.
At Emulate, we develop The engineered microphysiological system is called Organ chip It has a clear composition at the level of cells, tissues and organs. The predictive power of Emulate’s organ chip technology Be able to discover contributors to human physiology and pathophysiology, and Help researchers make the best decisions for their experiments.
What does your product do? How does it work?
this Human body simulation system Including organ chips for cell growth in culture, as well as hardware and software supporting experimental chip modules and controlling growth conditions. Each organ chip is a transparent and flexible microenvironment, which contains two parallel chambers, Can be configured from Organ of interestSuch as the liver and kidney near convoluted tubules, intestines, lungs and brain. The organ chip reproduces the natural physiological and mechanical forces experienced by cells in the human body, including blood and air flow.arrive Summarizing what happens during breathing or peristalsis, dynamic forces such as stretching and pressure can be applied to the culture system.
The system is an independent, laboratory-ready open platform for studying human biology and diseases, with higher precision and control than current cell culture or animal-based testing methods. Academic researchers have used Emulate’s technology to model organ components such as the glomerulus, bone marrow, and lymphoid follicles, while pharmaceutical organizations are mainly turning to validated models such as Emulate Brain-Chip or exploring hepatotoxicity, neuroinflammation, and colon inflammation And other diseases.
Is this your first healthcare startup? What is your background in healthcare?
I will consider simulating my third healthcare startup. I founded a software startup called CADx Systems in the field of tumor imaging for breast cancer detection, which was acquired by iCad. Then, I served as the president of ViaCell, a cord blood banking business that also invests in cord blood stem cell expansion technology. After ViaCell was acquired by PerkinElmer, I spent 11 years leading various global departments, including the $1.8B discovery and analysis solutions business, and the diagnostic and human health departments. In March 2020, I joined Emulate as the CEO.
Who are your customers? How do you generate income?
We have three main customer groups: academic scientists who solve many basic research problems; biopharmaceutical companies that develop drugs and bring therapeutic drugs to the market; and government accounts, such as Food and Drug Administration, NASA,as well as American armies Interested in applying organ chip technology to various projects, including Covid-19, bioterrorism, and how humans react in space. Our customers purchase a validated organ-specific model, which we call a biological kit containing qualified cells and protocols, or they can purchase a basic kit to create their own designed models and perform the required consumables and culture support and monitoring System their experiments.
Is your product clinically validated?
The organ chip is considered a research tool and is therefore not regulated by the FDA. The FDA recently created a program called ISTAND to help life science companies such as Emulate submit environmental plans for use. We are currently studying the ISTAND program to determine the best way for us to move forward.
In addition to the ISTAND program, I am also very encouraged by the proposed changes in federal policy. There are two bills before Congress, the FDA Modernization Act, which specifically requires the FDA to allow the data developed for organ chip technology to be submitted as part of an investigational new drug (IND) application.The other one was recently launched Humane Research and Testing Method (HR 1744) Among other actions, this will establish a national alternative research and testing center under the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new center will work to improve the transparency and understanding of the use of research animals, and will require NIH to develop, fund, and implement a plan to enumerate the number of animals used in biomedical research, and to incentivize companies to use non-animal methods by conducting research on scientists. Education and training of research methods related to human beings. When we move towards the future together, Emulate will continue Supporting researchers to adopt the next generation in vitro Organ chip model, when we look forward to the progress Organ chips are considered a routine use for drug discovery and development.
Photo: simulation
