Tailored Skincare Enabled by Understanding Skin Chemistry Using Mass Spectrometry Imaging

n the Western world skin research and topical product development is often focussed on the needs of Caucasian skin within limited age ranges. There is therefore a pressing need for research to better understand the unique requirements of skin from all ethnicities and age groups to better enable both cosmetic and pharmaceutical topical product development.

Recent developments in mass spectrometry (namely 3D OrbiSIMS - with research pioneered by The University of Nottingham and Walgreens Boots Alliance) have allowed an unprecedented chemical insight into fundamental skin chemistry and the permeation of relatively high mass low concentration topical skincare agents (Starr et. al. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) 2022). For example we have illustrated the previously only speculated cholesterol sulphate cycle from the dermis to the stratum corneum. This methodology will be exploited in this project to understand the chemical structure of the stratum corneum (the main barrier to skin permeation) using in vivo tape-strip sampling from volunteers representing different life stages and ethnicities. The findings will elucidate how this outermost skin layer varies chemically with these groupings giving insight into the chemical structure of different skin types as well as potentially understanding the chemical impact of aging within skin.

The findings from this research will be used to enable skincare formulating, tailored to perform for specific skin types and the data will be available to cosmetic and pharmaceutical topical research. The project will involve tape-strip (in vivo) and permeation testing with subsequent evaluation using 3D OrbiSIMS and other mass spectrometry approaches including matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS).