Human skin, like the night sky in Van Gogh’s Starry Night, has a complex yet beautiful structure. As the largest organ, the skin serves as a barrier to protect the body from the environment, including UV light exposure. Our goal is to develop a 3D skin model, or skin organoid, to investigate the mechanisms underlying the ‘children of the night’ condition, which is associated with UV light hypersensitivity, requiring patients to continuously protect themselves from the sun.
Impact
Creating realistic skin models that recapitulate all layers of the skin is essential for understanding disease and developing new treatments. These models shed light on underlying mechanisms, just like the stars in Van Gogh’s masterpiece illuminate the night.
reNEW research
Dr. Karine Raymond and her team have developed a 3D skin organoid using stem cells, featuring various skin cell types and hair follicles. They have recently improved the organoid model to more closely resemble human skin physiology. This advancement allows the team to investigate UV damage and repair mechanisms more effectively.
Image description
Section through a 130-day-old skin organoid with developing hair follicles (in yellow) surrounded by fibroblast (in white) maintaining the skin structure.
Credits
Charlotte De Henau, Research Technician, Karine Raymond lab, reNEW Leiden, Netherlands.
