Dear Foregen Supporters,

We have more information to share with you from Dr. Palumbo regarding the second part of animal trials, with sheep, and what it will entail.  This part of the animal phase will consist of the evaluation in an animal model of the degree of engraftment, re-innervation, and revascularization of decellularized scaffolds from human donor foreskin. The scaffolds will be implanted in an induced skin defect in the sheep to evaluate the engraftment and time of vascularization of the specific matrix tissue (decellularized foreskin). After 60 days, the samples will be explanted and analyzed.

The study will include 6 sheep that will have multiple implantation sites for the testing of the decellularized tissue. For the implantation, Foregen will also be making use of silicon holders that have a structural model compatible with the anatomy of the human foreskin, and will also prevent membrane collapse. The process of implanting the scaffolds will be staggered, starting with smaller scaffold sections and proceeding to larger ones, in order to test the effectiveness of the engraftment and the resulting vascularization and innervation.

If you’re interested in sharing Foregen’s work with someone but weren’t sure where to start, we have a new 90 second explainer video describing what the organization is! This professionally produced, animated video goes through the what, how, and why, and is a great tool to introduce someone to Foregen’s mission!  You can find the video on our YouTube channel here - let us know what you think in the comments.

Chief Science Officer Eric Cunningham has continued his series on biomaterials and biocompatibility with part 2 that you can find here on Commentarium.  In this part he provides more detail and context for the 2018 study Foregen did, and the various factors and analyses that went into the study, and the results that it yielded.

For March, donors contributed to raise a sum of $23,957, which included almost $700 in new recurring donations! We also had a very generous cryptocurrency donor contribute over $6,000, so our thanks goes to them too! We’ll have more to share in the next newsletter on the research and other developments as they happen!

Best,

Tyler J. Drozd

Chief Operations Officers