Cheap new synthetic skin enables product testing without animals.


A one cm disk will cost €35, enabling product testing without animals.

Researchers developed what they claim to be the first fully automated system to produce artificial skin, consisting of two layers with different cell types, an almost perfect copy of the human skin.

Fraunhofer researchers plan a fully automated system capable of producing synthetic skin with blood vessels in it. That system could hit the market as early as 2013 and would represent a big step forward in efforts by the medical industry to provide safe—and affordable—skin transplants.

Current demand for artificial skin to test creams, cleaning agents, bandages, and drugs far exceeds the industry’s ability to produce it.

Once the production of synthetic skin containing blood vessels is fully automated, it would allow companies to assess the risk of substances in their products entering a person’s blood stream

[Continue reading...] [Comment]

Read factlets by:    RSS feed     Email feed

Share/Bookmark
News and blogs about this factlet:

Ken Jennings Trivia

Privacy Advertise Contact