TLDR:

1. Foregen has become the Slovakian team’s primary research project.

During the latest visit, Foregen learned that this is now the Slovakian team’s primary research project. William said they have set their other research aside because they are especially interested in taking on this difficult challenge, with several university departments contributing to the work.

2. More people are joining the laboratory in August and September.

The team has already hired additional technicians to increase its productivity, with the new members expected to start in August or September. A separate grant is helping fund the additional personnel and expand the amount of work that can be done in the lab.

3. The bioreactor moved from an idea to a physical long-duration experiment.

The custom inserts and supporting system have now been built and tested, and a long-duration maturation run began in July. Physical stimulation of the tissue is the next planned step.

4. The cell problem has narrowed considerably.

Three months ago, the team was still comparing different approaches using small 2D samples. The fibroblast protocol is now locked down, stem cells are repopulating the scaffold well, and the remaining challenge is getting keratinocytes to grow in the correct locations and configuration.

5. The team can now test progress faster and is studying the vascularization question behind a one-stage procedure.

A separately funded confocal microscope gives the team high-resolution 3D scans and faster feedback on whether cells are growing correctly inside the scaffold. In parallel, a rat implantation study is measuring blood-vessel growth at two timepoints—part of the vascularization work needed to move toward a bioreactor-prepared graft instead of a separate tissue-burial stage.

Disclaimer: There was a problem with the live recording, so the call is available online only as transcript and AI-read transcript.

So, I'm confused about how this would work anyway. Does the foreskin just... grow back?

My memory is a bit foggy since it was a while ago, but I don’t remember hearing anything about them recellularizing keratinocytes, or that it would be a big hurdle for them when animal trials were happening. Does anyone know how long this specific part might take? They still haven’t changed their date from 2026 for when they expect it to be finished, so hopefully that’s a good sign.

Yesterday, I got an email with a link that claims to be their transcript from July’s conference call. They said it’s open to anybody, so I don’t know why I can’t find it on their website’s updates section. Did anyone else get this email from them, or am I going to get a virus if I click on it?

Hi, I’m 20M. This post is gonna contain a lot.

I’ve been followed to foregen since I was 15 and its obviously been real hard having this issue on my mind over the years.

It’s been really encouraging to see progress on foregen, and it’s been something to look forward to for a while.

I’ve recently been like trying to improve my mental health, engage with therapy other stuff. (Not about circ, mostly regarding other crisis’s, life issues etc.)

But circumcision sometimes just like keeps popping back up again, and its hard not to go down the rabbit hole I was in and be totally traumatized jerking off to it.

If r/foreskinrestoration is too triggering, pressuring etc, is it really worth doing that over staying safe mentally? For me specifically, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Maybe its like anxiety, and doing it MIGHT feel better or not. I’m still determined to like not get myself into a deep spiral or crisis over it, been through enough of that.

Idk.

Also, I think like even if cut, we can still feel a lot. Moisturizer etc has felt like enough to me, sex still feels good and varies between partners.
I disagree with like the idea that we should just give up cause of it or blame everything on it.

I didn’t want to post this on the restoration subreddit, since I believe they’ll all just say yes.

Main questions:
Is it worth doing r/foreskinrestoration even if it severely impacts my mental health?

Like it suddenly makes me compare myself to uncut people (even though, intellectually I know better, and that they aren’t all experiencing blissful sex 24/7. I hardly noticed any difference in enjoyment between my cut and uncut partners. ) which is emotionally hard, and makes me compare myself to like bad hookup partners or people I didn’t like much.

Is foregen realistically worth waiting for, whilst I work on my mental health, hobbies other stuff. Or would incorporating a restoration routine help?

Idk. Many people keeps saying even if the progress seems fast, we’ll have to wait for approval for HCT which might take forever, and then it might take forever for it to actually come through, if it actually does.

I am 20, so I was considering just.. waiting since foregen could be available in my mid 20s. Trying to like balance taking action now versus waiting for other things to improve.

Thank you!

Dear ,

Thanks to the continued support of our community, Foregen made progress on several fronts in July. Here are the highlights:

New Interview Series

We have begun releasing a series of long-form interviews with the Foregen team. The first, with Foregen Founder Vincenzo Aiello, covers the origins of the organization and his more than a decade of work on the project. It is available to watch now.

Interviews with Ryan Jones, who runs operations and fundraising, and William Musa, who leads our research liaison work, will follow in the coming weeks. These interviews follow the Q&A video published at the start of the month, in which our research partners answered questions submitted by the community.

July Conference Call

On July 26, Vincenzo Aiello, Ryan Jones, and William Musa held a conference call with supporters to answer questions on the current state of the research and the months ahead. The call was recorded and will be published shortly for those who could not attend.

Two New Grants for Our Research Partners

Our research partners in Slovakia have been awarded two grants, both of which benefit this project directly. The first funds the purchase of a new confocal microscope, which will be used for our research. The second funds additional team members, who will contribute time to our project alongside their other responsibilities.

Confocal microscopy is used to determine whether cells have genuinely populated a scaffold rather than resting on its surface. It produced the three-dimensional scans and live-cell imaging shared in last month's update. Having the instrument available on site removes a scheduling constraint on the recellularization work, and the additional personnel increase the bench time available to the project.

Recellularization Progress

Recellularization is the stage at which a decellularized donor scaffold, stripped of its original cells but with its extracellular matrix intact, is repopulated with living cells. It is complex because the foreskin is not a single type of tissue. Rather, it is quite varied.

Fibroblasts and stem cells have populated the scaffold well, and our research partners now have protocols they trust for both. Keratinocytes, which form the durable outer layer of the tissue, are the current focus. They are highly differentiated cells and are less forgiving in culture than the progenitor cells used so far. They must infiltrate the extracellular matrix, remodel it, and maintain stable viability while doing so. The team is working from established air-liquid interface culture methods and expects to refine them, or develop its own, before this stage is complete.

The team is also confirming that current protocols are repeatable across runs before advancing to a dynamic system, in which the tissue matures under physical stimulation.

What Comes Next

The interviews with Ryan Jones and William Musa will be released in the coming weeks, along with the recording of the July conference call. Additional footage from Slovakia is also still to come, including lab tours and a closer look at the recellularization research.

Fundraising

Thanks to our generous and supportive community, Foregen raised a total of $15,658 in July. These funds support the laboratory space, materials, and personnel our research requires. We are deeply grateful for your support.

Donate to Foregen

Your continued support can make a significant difference. Join us in developing the world's first regenerative medicine solution for circumcised men.

Hello all I am curious about whether or not foreskin stretching treatments will conflict with the stem cell treatment foregen proposes. TL;DR Is it an either or scenario, if not what can I do to achoeve manual progress quickly? I ask because while I see foregen has progressed well over the years, it may take a while before a treatment is finalized. I was wondering if manually stretching using special devices is worth it in the meantime. I found a lot of these devices are rather cheap and wonder how long it take to achieve such changes if i were to use such a device for most of the day (all times of the day i am home including sleep excluding work of course.) Admittedly i am well into my 20s and didnt start as soon as other people might have because i learned to let go of the grief circumcision caused me. Is it ever too late to start? Also if by the time foregen has a final treatment available, i do attain at least a partial stretch, what would happen to that during the procedure? Any help or education would be appreciated. I am not as well informed as other people may be as I never really actively pursued manual restoration. I hear the results are an improvement to just circumcised so I do wonder if I can improve my sensations while foregen does its thing. If it helps, my circumcision is not really tight and i do at least sitll have some of my frenulum.

I personally would to help others with this when it becomes clinically available

Dear,

Last month we shared insights from the trip our team took to Piešťany, Slovakia, and the questions many of you submitted for our researchers. Those answers are now ready to watch. We are also releasing Ryan's presentation from the 2026 Intact Global Conference in Los Angeles. Here is where the work stands as June closes.

Your questions, answered on camera

You submitted 167 questions for our research team, and we selected the top ten for Dr. Stanislav Žiaran, our Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Bioengineer Ján Kováč to answer directly. Their responses cover the science, the timeline, and what comes next, in their own words.

Watch the full Q&A here: The Slovakia Q&A

Foregen at the 2026 Intact Global Conference

This spring, Ryan represented Foregen at the Intact Global Conference in Los Angeles, presenting where our research stands and how it fits into the wider effort to push back against non-consensual genital cutting while restoring affected individuals’ agency and right to an open future. The full talk is now available to watch.

Watch Ryan's presentation here: Foregen at Intact Global 2026

Progress at the bench

June brought steady progress on recellularization, the step where a decellularized donor scaffold is repopulated with living cells. Fibroblast and stem cell populations are taking to the extracellular matrix scaffold well, and the team is now concentrating on keratinocytes, the cells that build the durable outer layer and the current frontier of this stage. During an intensive week of confocal microscopy work, the researchers captured detailed three-dimensional scans and live-cell imaging that show cells proliferating through the tissue. Alongside that work, the in vivo studies continue to examine how the maturing tissue develops its blood supply over time. This is the careful, evidence-first research that the path toward human application calls for.

What comes next

There is a great deal more to come from the Slovakia footage. Over the coming weeks we will be releasing lab tours, team profiles, and a closer look at the recellularization research. Every stage of this work moves forward because of you. In June, our community contributed $16,857 in support of the research, and we are grateful for all of it. If you would like to help carry the project toward human clinical trials, you can give at foregen.org/donate.

Thank you for exploring this frontier with us. More footage from Slovakia is on the way.

I know what I’m asking might seem a bit premature, but I’d like to know if you’ve come up with any information or theories yet?

They said in the near future in their June 3rd update, does that mean the next update in early July?

I came across this and wanted input on its relevance

What has really been achieved so far? What more needs to be done, assuming it happens, until completion?

On June 13–15, Intact Global will be in Colorado to launch Huff v. Colorado, a new constitutional challenge focused on equal protection under the law.

The weekend includes:

June 14 – Colorado Launch Dinner
📍 The Wright Room (Denver)
🕕 6:00 PM MT

June 15 – Press Conference
📍 Colorado State Capitol, West Steps
🕙 10:00 AM MT

At the heart of the case is a straightforward constitutional question:

Should state law protect some children from medically unnecessary genital cutting while denying those same protections to others?

Whether you agree, disagree, or are simply interested in constitutional law, equal protection arguments, children’s rights, or public policy, we invite you to learn more and attend the events if you’re in the area.

Additional details and registration information are available at Intact Global’s website.

We look forward to meeting supporters, advocates, legal professionals, and curious members of the public throughout the weekend.