On Oct. 16, 2024, researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Newcastle University and their collaborators announced they had used single cell sequencing and other genomics techniques to create the atlas and uncover how human skin, including hair follicles, is formed.

The team also created a ‘mini organ’ of skin in a dish with the ability to grow hair. Using the organoid, they showed how immune cells play an important role in scarless skin repair, which could lead to clinical applications to prevent scarring after surgery, or scarless healing after wounding.

As a result of this study, the team provided a molecular ‘recipe’ for how human skin is built and how hair follicles form. These insights could be used in the creation of new hair follicles for regenerative medicine, such as for skin transplants for burn victims, or those with scarring alopecia. The study findings were published in Nature.