Global beauty leader L'Oréal Groupe and the NUS Academy for Healthy Longevity at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) today announced a multi-year strategic research partnership to advance healthy longevity science, and the opening of a joint laboratory dedicated to understanding what skin, scalp and hair reveal about how the body ages. The partnership brings together L'Oréal's world-leading expertise in skin and hair science with NUS Medicine’s leadership in geroscience and healthy longevity medicine.
Why this matters scientifically
Different parts of the body age at different rates. Within the same person, the heart, brain, kidneys, immune system and musculoskeletal system can each run ahead of or behind chronological age, and each carries its own consequences for function and disease. Measuring that variation, organ by organ and system by system, is the basis of precision geromedicine and the core work of the NUS Academy for Healthy Longevity.
Skin is the body's largest and most accessible organ, yet it has rarely been measured with the same scientific rigour as other organs and included in multi-organ ageing research. This partnership is designed to close that gap by rigorously testing an open question: does skin ageing reflect what happens elsewhere in the body, or does it follow its own path? Either answer would be scientifically meaningful. If skin ageing correlates with the ageing trajectories of other organ systems, it could serve as a low-cost, non-invasive proxy for processes that currently require blood draws, imaging or specialised equipment. If, instead, skin ages along its own trajectory, it represents a distinct axis of biological ageing to be targeted in its own right.
The joint laboratory
Based on the campus of NUS Medicine, the new laboratory is anchored at the Healthy Longevity Clinical Trial Centre under the NUS Academy for Healthy Longevity, where L'Oréal's advanced skin, scalp and hair evaluation capabilities have been integrated into the Centre's comprehensive suite of longevity assessments within the clinical research workflow.
While skin assessment is already a core component of the Academy's trial protocols, the co-location of the new joint laboratory enables skin to be characterised directly from research participants alongside their cardiovascular, metabolic, cognitive and musculoskeletal measures. By capturing these multidimensional metrics within the same individuals and protocols, researchers can directly correlate skin data with systemic health indicators rather than relying on comparisons across separate studies.
Through collaborative longevity studies and clinical trials, the L'Oréal-NUS Medicine partnership also aims to uncover new insights that underscore the role of skin in enhancing quality of life from the skin inwards. This strategic partnership reflects a broader shift in how longevity is understood, moving beyond treating visible signs of ageing to supporting healthspan through proactive interventions.
This collaboration represents a shift from viewing skincare as purely cosmetic to recognising its role in overall health. Findings from this partnership will feed into L'Oréal's Longevity Integrative Science™, strengthening the scientific foundation connecting skin biology to systemic ageing. Over the longer term, insights generated by the collaboration may in turn inform the development of evidence-backed interventions for healthier skin, scalp and hair.
What the partners say
Professor Andrea Maier, Oon Chiew Seng Professor in Medicine, Healthy Ageing and Dementia Research at NUS Medicine and Founder and Director of the NUS Academy for Healthy Longevity at NUS Medicine said: “Skin has been an underutilised window into the biology of ageing. Our strategic partnership with L'Oréal enables us to integrate state-of-the-art skin assessments into our clinical trials, alongside systemic measures of biological ageing across multiple organ systems. This will allow us to better understand how skin reflects and contributes to healthy ageing within the context of the system aging within persons.”
Dr Angeline Tay, Head of Advanced Research at L'Oréal Research & Innovation in Singapore , said: “If signs in the skin turn out to be meaningful indicators about how the whole body is ageing, that changes what a skin measurement really tells us. Instead of just reflecting appearance, it could become an early signal of what’s happening inside the body. This is a hypothesis we believe is worth years of careful, evidence-based research to properly understand, and it is central to our commitment to shifting the science of ageing towards prevention. This partnership with NUS Medicine will deepen our understanding of what drives healthy skin ageing, helping us to develop next-generation formulations and routines calibrated to how each person’s skin ages.”
Magali Moreau, AVP Scientific Direction, Advanced Research at L'Oréal Research & Innovation , added: "Singapore has become a critical global hub for longevity research in one of the world's fastest-ageing regions, making this partnership with NUS Medicine a strategic milestone for us. By establishing this joint lab, we are building robust scientific evidence on the skin's role in healthy ageing, generating insights that will strengthen innovations across our portfolio globally."
Why skin, scalp and hair play a role in longevity science
Skin offers a unique and accessible insight into the biological ageing process. Processes central to ageing, including DNA damage, impaired protein function, declining mitochondrial energy production and chronic low-grade inflammation, are all detectable in skin tissue, often before visible signs of ageing appear. These processes are consistent with the biological hallmarks of ageing mapped within L'Oréal's Longevity Integrative Science™ framework, reinforcing skin's relevance as a measurable indicator within this broader model of biological ageing. Hair follicles and the scalp offer complementary readouts of cellular health and biological ageing over time.
Skin is also the organ people notice first, and the one they can act on most readily. With Singapore's rapidly ageing population, research into skin health may enable earlier, more preventive approaches, helping people make better-informed choices about their lifelong wellbeing and self-care. This reflects a broader shift in how longevity is understood, from treating the visible signs of ageing to supporting healthspan through earlier intervention.
L'Oréal's commitment to advance research and innovation in Singapore
This partnership builds on L'Oréal's strong and growing research presence in Singapore and its commitment to working with leading academic partners to advance scientific excellence, including its longevity science ecosystem.
As part of its global Research & Innovation strategy, L'Oréal invests €1.3 billion annually in R&I, supported by 4,000 scientists across 22 research centres worldwide. Longevity research represents a key strategic frontier for the Groupe, reinforcing its vision of beauty as a contributor to long-term health, wellbeing and quality of life.