AstraZeneca has collaborated with Emulate integrate an organ-on-a-chip technology into the R&D program of the pharma giant. It is meant to expedite the technology’s development within the company.

The agreement stipulates scientists from Emulate will work in the Innovative Medicines and Early Development Biotech Unit of AstraZeneca. The partnership between the two companies can be traced to 2013. The two companies co-published their work at a recent meeting of the Society of Toxicology.

The organ chip has been described as a living, micro-engineered environment having the power to recreate the natural physiology and mechanical forces experienced by cells within the human body.

Emulate’s Liver-Chip will be used in the initial phase of the agreement for safety testing of drug candidates in AstraZeneca’s pipeline for data submission for new drugs within the regulatory framework. Over a period of time, the two companies are in plans to develop the Lung Tumor-Chip, Lung-Chip and Glomerulus Kidney-Chip of Emulate.

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard lay the foundation for Emulate’s tech which concentrates on chips lined with human cells and are designed to mimic their target tissue’s chemical and mechanical characteristics. The microchip fabrication processes facilitates the technology for the devices.