Because circumcised people sometimes want to recover a foreskin that they never wanted to be rid of – even if the operation has nothing to do with sexual mutilation – the Californian start-up Foregen, launched in 2010 by the Italian mosaic artist Vincenzo Aiello, intends to succeed in this challenge and will soon begin clinical trials – if the health authorities give their approval for this.
This non-profit organization, funded through a crowdfunding campaign, aims to create the first foreskin developed in the laboratory using cutting-edge tissue engineering techniques. It stands out from modern circumcision reversal options, which currently involve either surgery or lengthy processes of “stretching” the remaining skin – we let you make the pictures.
Mass printing soon?
The method proposed by Foregen consists of a two-step process. First, part of the foreskin is removed from a corpse donated to science. This tiny fragment of tissue is then the subject of a “cellular elimination”as described by William Musa, scientific director of the start-up, to summarize the process allowing only the organic structure to be recovered.
The decellularized foreskin, also known as ghost tissue, is then seeded with the patient’s stem cells, custom fit and surgically fixed. The trick is to remove enough cells so that the ghost tissue no longer has any unique identifiers, but not so many that you compromise the structure itself.
If Foregen expands its activity – imagine, for example, that the billion and a half circumcised individuals simultaneously decide that they want a foreskin – the start-up’s engineers have already planned to use cellular bioprinting, which makes it possible to manufacture functional tissues in large quantities. But it would be unreasonable to put the cart before the horse: if the start-up has existed since 2010, its managers do not hide the fact that the cutting-edge medical technology at the heart of their project could require at least another decade before being perfected.
It should be added that in 2023, several Foregen executives left their positions (amicably, we are told) to found Akroprint, another company pursuing the same goal. The risk is that the division of potential forces leads to a dispersion of talents and therefore a significant loss of time in this objective of reconstructing the foreskin, which seems to be the subject of an increasing number of requests – without creating an insane enthusiasm.
