October 29, 2020 -- Emulate has entered a cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enable multiple studies to evaluate COVID-19 vaccines and understand immune responses against SARS-CoV-2.
The FDA will use a range of Emulate's Organ-Chips technology to study the safety, efficacy, and mechanisms of drugs regulated by the FDA. Initial studies will recreate the natural physiology of specific human tissues and organs in areas where conventional cell culture and animal-based testing methods have limitations, such as Alzheimer's disease and COVID-19.
The Lung-Chip study, led by the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, will explore why individuals experience a wide spectrum of disease severity and what constitutes a real protection against future SARS-CoV-2 infection.
This agreement follows the completion of an initial collaboration in 2018 that focused on toxicity studies using the company's Liver-Chip product.