making microbiology easy

Skin microbiota harnessing

Supporting projects linked to skin microbiota

Smaltis supports programs targeting skin microbiota for health maintenance or pathologies treatment, to help in the selection of the best candidates and assess their impact on specific microbes or on the global microbial ecosystem.

Studied products

Claims

  • Active ingredients: Probiotics, Prebiotics, Postbiotics, Synbiotics
  • Preservatives and Extracts with antibacterial properties
  • Finished products

“Inhibitition properties against pathogenic strains,
Protects the skin microbiota,
Respects the microbial ecosystem of the skin,
Microbiome-friendly,
Rebalances the dysbiosis induced by external factors…”

Our strengths

  • Complementary preclinical and clinical tests approach
  • Design of specific protocols according to the objective of the product
  • Correlation with literature and clinical observations

Our services

PRECLINICAL STUDIES

During preclinical steps, Smaltis supports the screening and selection of the most promising candidates for clinical studies, and help anticipate their effects on bacteria, yeasts and molds.

OBJECTIVES

  • To identify impact of products on defined strains
  • To analyse bacterial and fungal response
  • To study biomarkers and specific properties

TOOLS

  • In vitro / Ex vivo models: Culture, Co-culture, Reconstructed 3D tissue models
  • Analysis: Microbial counting, Viability and Behavior, Genomic, Transcriptomic, Proteomic

EXAMPLES OF SERVICES

Assessment of inhibitory ability against pathogenic species, stimulatory properties on beneficial strains, impact on metabolic pathways, secretion profile, virulence, biofilm formation…

CLINICAL STUDIES

For clinical trials, a complete service makes it possible to test, on a cohort of volunteers, the clinical impact of active ingredients or finished cosmetic products on skin microbiota, in the context of an imbalanced or healthy skin.

OBJECTIVES

  • To analyse the global skin microbial composition before and after product application
  • To study the action of the product on skin microbiota in parallel of skin parameters evolution

TOOLS

  • Swabbing and Sequencing:
    Next Generation Sequencing: 16S, ITS or Shotgun
  • Analysis of raw data – global interpretation:
    Study of skin microbiota composition of volunteers

Swabbing on volunteers

Smaltis collaborates with Skinexigence, specialized in clinical efficacy assessment of cosmetic products. The proximity of the company makes it easy to combine biometrological measurements and microbiota characterization. Volunteers microflora sampling is systematically carried out by the same Smaltis microbiologist and processed in a very short period of time to ensure the reproducibility and reliability of the results.

Sequencing with qualified providers

Bacterial flora composition of each sample is then determined by high-throughput NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) of the nucleic acids. This sequencing can focus on DNA coding for the 16S region of the bacterial ribosome (16S sequencing), or can focus on total DNA contained in the sample (shotgun sequencing). From the generated metagenomic data, a statistical analysis is performed to provide a comparative, quantitative and qualitative study of the cutaneous bacterial population (diversity, relative abundance…).

Metranscriptomic profiling can also be performed to analyse gene expression and identify specific activated metabolic pathways.

Post-metagenomic exploration

Beyond the sequencing and quantitative/qualitative analysis of these bacterial populations, Smaltis strives to go as far as possible in the exploitation of the results.
Smaltis microbiologists seek to explain the data obtained, to establish correlations with literature and clinical observations, to understand interactions between a compound and skin bacteria, to anticipate the effect of a variation in bacterial population on the production of metabolites… 

Examples of achievements

Study of the effect of an extract of Halymenia durvillei on the microbiota of sensitive and reactive skin: Characterization of Reactive and Sensitive Skin Microbiota: Effect of Halymenia durvillei (HD) Extract Treatment.
Extract developed by Greentech.

Establishment of a specific clinical protocol to assess the impact of a product on the protection of individual skin microbiota balance and on its restoration after disrupting.