First Human Skin Sample 'Grown' In Lab, Could Artificial Epidermis End Animal Testing?

Scientists have developed the first lab-grown sample of human skin that they say could replace animal testing in the cosmetic and topical drug industries. A team of researchers from King's College London and the San Francisco Veteran Medical Center announced on Thursday that they were able to grow an epidermis that had the same permeability as real human skin, by using pluripotent stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells are cultured from adult cells and can develop into any type of cell or tissue.