The joint research of CTIBIOTECH and BASF’s Care Creations has been awarded the “Henry Maso Award” for world’s first 3D bioprinted immune skin model at the closing ceremony of the 2021 IFSCC conference in Cancun, Mexico.

The skin model is suitable for screening drugs and ingredients for normal and inflamed skin. CTIBIOTECH teamed up with BASF scientists to develop and validate this technology to produce multiple copies of 3D bioprinted full skin models containing human macrophages from the immune system.

Using this technology BASF scientists will be able to select innovative bio-actives and ingredients for advanced skin care applications. The technology provides a powerful platform for skin care researchers wishing to study the function of macrophages in a fully reconstructed skin.

Macrophages constantly monitor the skin’s microenvironment for indications of cell stress, tissue injury or infection. They are essential to close wounds and to fully regenerate tissue. To maintain skin homeostasis, macrophages have a high degree of plasticity that promote or suppress inflammation.

The “Henry Maso Award” is presented at IFSCC congresses to young scientists who published the best paper in an issue of the IFSCC Magazine in the two years preceding the congress. This original work was presented at the 2020 IFSCC congress in Yokohama, Japan, by Maxime Lègues, 3DBioprinting Manager at CTIBIOTECH and then published in the IFSCC publication.

Lègues will be invited to the next IFSCC congress to take place in London, United Kingdom, in September 2022 to receive the “Henry Maso Award”.

Prof Colin McGuckin, President and Chief Scientific Officer at CTIBIOTECH said, “We are extremely proud of this research and of Maxime Lègues, a gifted young researcher contributing to international skin research and innovations.”

“There is a strong need for better testing systems showing how ingredients affect or can improve sensitive or allergic skin. The presented 3D full-size bioprinted model of human skin that contains immune system cells is therefore a solution for rapid and reliable testing of products addressing reactive skin,” said Dr Sébastien Cadau, 3D tissue engineering specialist at BASF.