Harvard University is spinning out Emulate with a series A worth $12m. The new company will commercialise an automated human organs-on-chips platform. The technology mimics human physiology and diseases.
The series A round was led by venture capital firm NanoDimension, who was joined by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and private investor Hansjörg Wyss. Emulate will use the money to bring its first product to market.
The automated human organs-on-chips product is the first of its kind, and will allow researchers to better understand the molecular mechanisms of the human body’s reaction to drugs, chemicals and toxins. This proprietary bio-emulation technology is more efficient than animal testing and could be used to make development of drugs and cosmetics quicker and cheaper than is currently possible.
The technology was developed by a team of researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
Dr Shlomo Melmed, senior vice-president for academic affairs and dean of the medical faculty at Cedars-Sinai, said: “Emulate’s platform has significant potential to advance human health today, not only to better design and evaluate new breakthrough medicines, but also to drive more personalised diagnosis and treatment approaches. Our vision is we can one day put each patient’s cells on chips that mimic the function of organs, and this will open up new ways for us to design truly personalized treatment with stem cells, based on each patient’s unique genetic profile on their own individualised organs-on-chips.”
