Emulate, Inc. and LabCorp‘s (NYSE:LH) Covance Drug Development biz inked a deal to collaborate for an organ-on-a-chip preclinical drug evaluation and testing service.

Emulate’s organ-on-a-chip tech is designed to be a predictive model of the human body’s response to diseases and medications.

The companies plan to combine the organ modeling tech with Covance’s expertise of drug development to commercialize the organs-on-a-chip program as a platform to enhance preclinical drug development for other pharma and biotech companies.

The technology’s 1st application will be for a kidney chip, the companies reported. Researchers will evaluate how the chips can assist in drug-transporter interaction assessments, a component of preclinical testing.

The collaboration agreement allows for expansion into additional organ chips beyond the kidney chip as well as commercialization of the technology.

“We are pleased to partner with Emulate on technology that shows promise to help improve the speed and success of early-stage drug evaluation,” Covance chief scientific officer Steven Anderson said in prepared remarks. “This project is indicative of our commitment to support and implement innovative technology that can help to reduce the time, costs and risks of drug development.”

“As a leading drug development company with vast experience in drug testing standards and methodologies, Covance is the ideal partner to help accelerate the adoption of our Organs-on-Chips technology for broad application as a platform in drug development,” Emulate prez & CEO Geraldine Hamilton added. “Together, Covance and Emulate bring a combination of scientific and operational expertise to implement Organs-on-Chips as a new technology, alongside existing preclinical practices, so that we can achieve our goals of establishing improved standards, creating more predictive models, and helping to speed the development of innovative medicines.”