L’Oreal is developing realistic artificial skin that can be “touched,” paving the way for ethical testing of cosmetics and other products without using animals.
The bioprinted skin, unveiled at the Viva Technology conference in Paris last week, can replicate common skin conditions and behaviours, including eczema, acne, sunburn and wound healing.
Geeve Barouch, who heads the company’s technology incubator, said: CNBC “The ability to combine biology and 3D printing to customise regenerative skin” will be “revolutionary,” he said.
L’Oreal is Partnership with University of Oregon The company is focused on developing synthetic skin, including creating an artificial skin that can provide sensory feedback to scientists when testing cosmetics, eliminating the need for animal testing.
“The idea with sensors is that you can not only test on regenerated skin, but also get sensory reality feedback of what happens when you apply the product, so you can assess not just efficacy but also sensory feedback,” Baruch told the outlet.
According to CNBC, the company hasn’t tested its products on animals since 1989, but has used synthetic skin to test its cosmetics for years.
“As long-time pioneers in beauty tech, we firmly believe that technology can push the boundaries of what’s possible in beauty and improve people’s lives around the world,” said Barbara Lavernois, deputy CEO of Research, Innovation and Technology at the L’Oréal Group. statement Prior to the meeting.
“With advanced diagnosis, augmented beauty services, GenAI assistants, augmented creativity in the GenAI era, and groundbreaking electronic devices, we are shaping a more personalized, more inclusive and more responsible future of beauty.”
The Washington Post has contacted L’Oreal for further comment.
The synthetic skin is made using a technology called Melt Electrowriting (MEW), which creates multiple layers of “plastic scaffolds” or “microstructured 3D printed threads” containing cultured cells, separated by membranes, to achieve an appearance similar to human skin, making it a first-of-its-kind innovation.
“This is the first known example of replicating full-thickness, high-quality skin tissue using different cell types separated by a membrane,” said Yevgeny Lyashchenko, a research engineer working in Paul Dalton’s University of Oregon laboratory. statement.
“Other attempts haven’t used the same layered structure that they have,” said Dalton, the associate professor at the university, which he said is why it looks like “real skin.”
Previous synthetic skin replicas typically took between 21 and 35 days to create, but this groundbreaking model takes just 18 days to grow.
“Our collaboration has not only accelerated the skin reconstruction process but also paved the way for future applications in skin tissue engineering,” said Anne Colonna, head of advanced research at L’Oreal. statement.
The impact of the team’s innovation goes far beyond the world of cosmetics: The researchers say the artificial skin could be used to study wound healing, as skin grafts for burn patients, and to treat diabetic foot ulcers.
“We’ve made great strides with the skin, but the design of the scaffold is crucial and could have broader applicability,” Dalton says. “There are so many unsolved diseases and injuries in the world, so having new tools to tackle them is invaluable.”
