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STORY: This is a lab-grown - synthetic - INFECTED - skin sample.Researchers at Sheffield Hallam University say it could be key to helping people with eczema.“What we're doing is we're making an inflamed skin model and looking at the differences between normal skin and inflamed skin and how bacteria have different relationships with inflamed skin compared to normal skin."Though synthetic skin isn't new - they say this is the first that truly represents skin problems people suffer from.“We’re growing artificial skin in the lab, and we are making an inflamed model of the skin that's representative of atopic dermatitis."Amy Grayson is a post-doctoral researcher at Sheffield Hallam University."And then what we do is we put healthy skin bacteria on the models to make a more representative model because previous models in the past have only used inflamed skin, but they haven't factored in the fact that the skin microbiome has an effect on how the skin grows."The school’s commercial research unit is collaborating with US consumer goods giant Colgate Palmolive.Their goal is to perfect an artificial skin that not only simulates the full thickness of human skin but also accurately emulates its microbiome, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses.It would have important implications for the skincare industry - 20 years after the European Union banned animal testing for cosmetic purposes.The technique relies on mass spectrometry machines developed by Waters Corporation, which can identify molecules by their weight.With it - cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies would be able to test products as if they're being applied to natural human skin.Jim Langridge is the director of Health Sciences at Waters Corporation.“The technology that we develop here at Waters allows researchers to probe the layers of artificial skin so they can determine very precisely the penetration of different drugs and different molecules into those artificial skin sections. So they can determine the different layers and they can also determine how far that drug has penetrated into those layers using our unique technology.”Eczema is a complex, recurring, inflammatory skin condition affecting more than 200 million people worldwide.The condition can be hard to manage.Sufferers often struggle to identify what triggers it to flare up – and how to treat it once it does."For too long it's been trial and error for a lot of people."Andrew Proctor is the chief executive of the National Eczema Society."But where you've got something like this, a novel research approach, it means that there's an opportunity of understanding better what works and why it works and so the opportunity to help people manage their eczema more effectively is just really exciting."