Treating
severe burns typically involves grafting a healthy patch of skin taken
from elsewhere on the body. But large burns present a problem. That has researchers at Wake Forest experimenting
with a treatment method that involves applying a small number of
healthy skin cells onto the injury and letting them grow organically
over the wound. 3-D-bioprinted skin potentially could be produced
faster, provided Organovo can successfully replicate the cell structure
of human epidermis.
L’Oreal already has a massive lab in Lyon, France, to produce its patented skin, called Episkin,
from incubated skin cells donated by surgery patients. The cells grow
in a collagen culture before being exposed to air and UV light to mimic
the effects of aging. Organovo pioneered the process of bioprinting
human tissues, most notably creating a 3-D-printed liver system.
Both parties benefit from the partnership: L’Oreal gets Organovo’s
speed and expertise, and Organovo gets funding and access to L’Oreal’s
comprehensive knowledge of skin, acquired through many years and over $1
billion in research and development.
At
the moment, L’Oreal uses its epidermis samples to predict as closely as
possible how human skin will react to the ingredients in its products.
If L’Oreal can more quickly iterate on the molecular composition of its
skin samples, it can produce more accurate results, conceivably across
different skin phenotypes. That means products like sunscreen and
age-defying serums—which inevitably will yield varying results across
varying skin types—can be tweaked for greater efficacy.
L’Oreal
also has a history of selling Episkin to other cosmetic and
pharmacology companies. The company won’t disclose the going rate, but
in 2011 toldBloomberg it sold half-centimeter-wide samples for €55 each
(about $78 each at the time). That said, Guive Balooch, who runs
L’Oreal’s in-house tech incubator, says the bioprinting will be done
primarily for research purposes.
Balooch
approached Organovo after seeing its human liver model. While the two
companies still need to settle on an exact plan for the skin samples,
the bioprinting process for epidermis will be roughly similar to that of
the liver. It happens in three steps, says Michael Renard, a VP at
Organovo. Once scientists have collected the human cells from the
various companies that harvest and sell them, they use a proprietary
in-house technology to turn the cells into a “bio-ink” that feeds into
the bioprinters. The actual manufacturing isn’t all that different from
what you might see with a standard 3D printer.
“In
concept, it’s the same idea of programming the 3-D printer to print
architecture on an X-Y-Z axis,” he says, referring to the CAD designs
that typically inform 3-D printers. “We just happened to use living
human cells. There’s delicacy involved.” During the last step, the
structure of cells is nourished (Renard won’t say how) and kept in a
temperature-controlled environment so they can fuse into a cohesive mass
of tissue.
There
are still a bevy of unknowns, such as when Organovo will start
production and just how much faster it will be compared to L’Oreal’s
current derma-farming methods. Still, Renard says Organovo produces at
“a commercial scale,” so it stands to reason the same will go for skin.
That’s a vague start, but these things—you know, the rapid
manufacturing of human flesh—don’t happen overnight.
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