Made up of skin cells from donors and collagen, the in-vitro skin has the same chemical and biological properties as human skin, says John Koh, lab manager at start-up DeNova Sciences, which is collaborating with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University on the product.

“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 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.