Mark presents his group’s latest research
What a great mix of talks at the Anti Ageing Skin Care Conference. Mark introduced Skin Life Analytics and presented an in depth talk about the relationship between nutritional status, antioxidants, bioenergy and interventions on human skin ageing. His talk included three recent, exciting papers from his research group at Newcastle University. First exploring the role of pollution in skin ageing, a Faseb paper released last month. Second, an Ageing Cell paper exploring the restoration of mitochondria in skin cells with nicotinamide treatment. Last, but certainly not least, another Faseb paper measuring the individual and combined effects of infrared, visible and UV light on skin cells. You can read the full papers via the links, or click here for a summary.
Diversity in skin research
There has been a lot of focus on the importance of inclusivity of all skin types, particularly in sun protection. One key issue often overlooked is ALL skin gets damaged by the sun, and we must not focus just on pale skin. Ageing looks different in different skin types. Importantly, where pale skin is more likely to see wrinkles and redness, darker skin will have uneven pigmentation and texture. The signs of ageing associated with sun exposure, such as wrinkles, eventually start to show around 10-20 later in darker skin. Skincare research needs to be as diverse as the world word outside it.
Skin microbiome: what’s next?
This skin microbiome has had the spotlight this week. Figuring out the minefield of microbes is the new hot topic in skincare. Do we need to look at it? It has links to most skin issues; acnes, eczema, psoriasis, ageing. How do we research it? We need controls and standardised methods for this new area of research. With so many microbes on the skin, how do we research it? With difficulty! But it’s not impossible, the microbiome changes by many factors (washing, clothing, detergent to name a few) and even the inside of a wrinkle will have a different biome! These were some of the key questions explored in the talk, and it is an exciting area of research to keep an eye on.
Further talks on the future of personalised skincare, advertising claims, research practice and more. We have really enjoyed this opportunity to network, hearing about the latest in anti ageing skin care and a look to the future of skincare research. It was great to see our Catalyst neighbours at the National Innovation Centre for Ageing there too!