Organovo (PINK:ONVO) will partner with global beauty company L’Oreal (EPA:OR) to produce 3D-printed skin as a product-testing tool.
Neither side is disclosing financial details, but plans call for San Diego-based Organovo to work with L’Oreal USA to generate skin tissue for a number of areas of advanced research. Evaluation of new skincare product is 1 part of the deal.
Organovo is known for developing 3D human tissue models with pharmaceutical, cosmetic and academic partners. The company said that this arrangement is the 1st such deal it has made with a company from the beauty industry.
"This partnership is a great next step to expand the applications of Organovo’s 3D bioprinting technology and to create value for both L’Oreal and Organovo by building new breakthroughs in skin modeling," chairman & CEO Keith Murphy said in prepared remarks.
Guive Balooch, global vice president of L’Oreal’s technology incubator, added that the deal will, in part, "bring about new advanced in vitro methods for evaluating product safety and performance."
Organovo made its initial start in 3D-printed diagnostic assays, allowing pharmaceutical companies, for example, to more thoroughly test liver toxicity. Separately, researchers have also used the technique for bio-printing living cells to make stem cell grafts.
3D printers have also been used to make medical devices such as skull fragment replacements and home-made plastic prosthetics.
