Perfectus Biomed Present - Biofilms in personal care: Skin microbiome modelling

The skin microbiome is a rapidly growing area of research and as more companies begin to invest in skin microbiome-targeted personal care products, Perfectus Biomed identified the need for robust, reproducible test models to understand the effects of these products and validate associated claims. We have significant experience in biofilm testing, introducing both UKAS-accredited and customised biofilm models appropriate to a wide range of products in a variety of sectors. These models are based on a microbial community developed on abiotic surfaces such as plastics and metals. Whilst the assessment of product efficacy on colonised hard surface models provide much needed preliminary data these models don’t fully mimic the biological impact of host cells on bacterial colonisation, in other words, live human skin. Building on our existing abiotic model and expertise in cell biology this presentation demonstrates how we have addressed three key challenges: Assessing bacterial interaction with live cells, assessing bacterial colonisation in 3D skin and assessment of bacterial colonisation in wounded skin. This resulted in us determining microbial attachment and colony formation on these models.