SkinCom, a synthetic skin microbial community, enables reproducible investigations of the human skin microbiome.

Abstract

Existing models of the human skin have aided our understanding of skin health and disease. However, they currently lack a microbial component, despite microbes' demonstrated connections to various skin diseases. Here, we present a robust, standardized model of the skin microbial community (SkinCom) to support in vitro and in vivo investigations. Our methods lead to the formation of an accurate, reproducible, and diverse community of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Subsequent testing of SkinCom on the dorsal skin of mice allowed for DNA and RNA recovery from both the applied SkinCom and the dorsal skin, highlighting its practicality for in vivo studies and -omics analyses. Furthermore, 66% of the responses to common cosmetic chemicals in vitro were in agreement with a human trial. Therefore, SkinCom represents a valuable, standardized tool for investigating microbe-metabolite interactions and facilitates the experimental design of in vivo studies targeting host-microbe relationships.