Skin Factory

"Skin Factory" is a machine created by German scientists to manufacture human skin using cells from a baby boy’s foreskin.

The scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute hope the skin they’ve been able to produce will provide a 'humane alternative to using animals' in testing of cosmetics and other products.

After the cells from the foreskins have multiplied inside the machine, they’re injected into a gel that forces them to grow into a sheet that simulates the epidermis — the outermost layer of human skin. To create a model that simulates human skin, three of these layers are fused together.

The process of growing new skin takes about six weeks. At present, the Fraunhofer Institute is producing about 5,000 new samples per month.