"We can see that the industry is moving towards animal-free testing," Koh said.
"So we really want to offer a solution to testing on the skin without using animal or human skin."
The team has accelerated the manufacturing process by using a printing machine to put in precisely patterned layers that mimic human skin. Each tiny piece of skin takes less than a minute to print, which is the distinctive quality of this project.
The mixture is then incubated for about two weeks, as the skin cells multiply and gain opacity, turning into a whitish membrane.
The skin can be used to test the toxicity or irritation potential of a substance, and the penetrative qualities of active ingredients in products like cosmetics.
His team is now focusing on developing skin that includes Asian pigment cells to test the whitening effects of cosmetics and skincare products.