The Network and Emulate Inc. are pleased to announce that six projects were successful in the recent funding round for the Organ-on-a-Chip Network & Emulate Proof of Concept Awards.

The Queen Mary+Emulate Organs-on-Chips Centre, a new core facility at Queen Mary University of London, is open for Network members to develop their own models and to utilise or adapt the existing models which include, liver, kidney, intestine and lung.

This Proof of Concept Award provides researchers with the blank organ-chips and support from the Centre Scientists, in order to generate preliminary data to support new research grant applications.

The applications were reviewed by an expert panel including members of the Network leadership team and external experts. The six awarded projects in the third round are:

• Defining the interaction of nanomedicines with the small intestine: Driton Vllasaliu (PI) Kings College London
• Impact of undernutrition-exposed monocytes on gut barrier function: Claire Bourke (PI) Queen Mary University of London
• Chip model of placental and fetal membranes to characterise damage caused by particles of air pollution: Tina Chowdhury (PI) Queen Mary University of London
• Developing liver-on a chip models with primary human liver endothelial cells to test novel liver directed immunotherapies: Shishir Shetty (PI) University of Birmingham
• Investigating the pro-metastatic cross-talk between amoeboid cancer cells and tumour microenvironment in a cancer-on-chip model: Victoria Sanz-Moreno (PI) Queen Mary University of London
• Towards a biomicrofluidic model of the enterocyte-lymphatic interface to study the intestinal transport of lipid-soluble drugs: Nazila Kamaly (PI) Imperial College London

For details of the different projects and information about accessing the facilities, please see the Queen Mary+Emulate Organs-on-Chips centre website: www.cpm.qmul.ac.uk/emulate/

If you are interested in using the Centre, please contact the Centre Manager/Scientist Dr Clare Thompson: clare.l.thompson@qmul.ac.uk

The final call for Proof of Concept Awards will be announced later in the year.