L’Oreal and Organovo to develop 3D-printed skin for cosmetic testing

L'Oreal has announced a new partnership with 3D bioprinting company Organovo to develop a new type of synthetic skin for research purposes.

The cosmetics company's US-based global Technology Incubator will work with Organovo and utilise its proprietary NovoGen Bioprinting Platform to develop 3D-printed skin tissue for product evaluation and other areas of advanced research.

It represents the first-ever application of Organovo's technology within the beauty industry, with the joint research to also benefit from L'Oreal's expertise in skin engineering.

Organovo's 3D bioprinting enables the reproducible, automated creation of living human tissues that mimic the form and function of native tissues in the body.

Guive Balooch, global vice-president of L'Oreal's Technology Incubator, said: "Our partnership will not only bring about new advanced in vitro methods for evaluating product safety and performance, but the potential for where this new field of technology and research can take us is boundless."

During the first quarter of 2015, the company experienced a year-on-year sales increase of 14.1 percent on a reported basis.