Novel approaches for the development of customized skin treatments and services

(Test case: Dead Sea Minerals and Conventional drugs)

       Project Budget 5,441,415 Euros

Economical and health interests of skin problems are fast growing issues in Europe, following the remarkable extension in life expectancy in western countries, together with the increased awareness of UV radiation risks. Personalized health care approach has been discussed over the past few years and had been accompanied by developing innovative technologies capable of identifying specific biomarkers, supporting a personalized diagnosis and treatments, especially concerning bio-compatibility of drugs.

SKINTREAT intends to develop and validate nano-chemical and bio- technologies to achieve an accurate matching of drugs, and drug delivery vehicles, to skin diseases and

sub pathogenic skin conditions in their individual context. The project will design novel generation of pharmaceutical products, as well as consumer personalized service, in order to fit customers’ tailored needs with a support of strategic consortium based on partnership among SMEs and research organizations. The development of personalized skin therapy protocols requires achieving an accurate diagnostics of skin condition and

an extensive analysis of biological markers. Non invasive methods as well as minimal invasive skin sampling will support the establishment of a range of biological profiles corresponding to skin diseases and skin sub pathologic conditions. Statistical processing of these data will allow defining biomarkers patterns specifically associated with given clinical conditions. A bio-informatics data mining protocol will be elaborated, together with multifunctional biomarker analysis software, to build a refined, personalized diagnosis method. Finally, the computer data analysis will yield a decision support system (DSS) to assist dermatologists, chemist and clients for prescription of personalized treatment. SKINTREAT concept will be evaluated by a wet pilot study of the whole service chain on a few, selected skin disorders like psoriasis, contact dermatitis, and UV skin photo-aging damages.