At the 31st International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists (IFSCC) Congress 2020 Yokohama, which took place virtually from 21 to 30 October, L’Oréal R&I unveiled its latest advances in skin and hair research.
Among the 441 projects selected by the Japanese jury, L’Oréal R&I researchers filled half of the programme defined by the scientific committee, with seven podiums and 34 posters. L’Oréal researchers, hailing from eight countries, including South Africa, France, Japan, Brazil, United States, Singapore, India and China highlighted the excellence of their work and the diversity of their expertise.

Pioneering skin engineering research
This year, the IFSCC award for applied research was presented to Dr Sacha Salameh, L’Oréal advanced research, Aulnay, France for her presentation on a new vascularised reconstructed skin model.
After 40 years of research on skin engineering, L’Oréal R&I has reached a new milestone in the development of a skin model that better mimics real human skin. This confirms the global beauty brand’s leadership in the development of alternative methods. This new research tool will allow researchers to better understand the skin, and in particular its interactions with the interior of the body via the bloodstream.
“This multidisciplinary project could only be possible thanks to the collaboration of experts with different backgrounds such as microfluidics and skin engineering, coming from France and Japan,” comments Dr Salameh.
Ongoing recognition for years of work
The paper entitled A perfusable vascularised full thickness skin model for topical and systemic applications is the work of Dr Salameh, Nicolas Tissot, Kevin Cache, Itaru Suzuki, Paulo André Marinho, Maité Rielland, Julien Demaude, Jérémie Soeur, Shoji Takeuchi, Stéphane Germain and Lionel Breton.
“This award recognises years of work to develop new models of reconstructed skin – one of the areas of skin engineering in which our efforts have been recognised for decades,” says Gilles Spenlehauer, L’Oréal advanced research director – Aulnay, France.
Top 10 scientific presentations
To be in the running for the applied research award, the Japanese jury selected the 10 best scientific posters among the 372 presented during the 2020 IFSCC Congress. In addition to Dr Salameh’s presentation, two other L’Oréal R&I posters were ranked in the top 10:
- Metabolomics, the cornerstone between microbiome and skin functions to understand Pollution mediated Effects – by Namita Misra, Philippe Bastien, Florent Guinot, Nasrine Bourokba, Stephanie Nouveau, Janice Yeo, Lionel Breton, Marcus Leung, Patrick Lee, Cécile Clavaud and Nükhet Cavusoglu
- Real-Life Face-Video System: Capturing and Analysing Complex Colour and Shine Effects by M Doumi, Nilesh Shah and Margarita Yatskayer.