Skin microbiome
PMP™ Skin Microbiome Test
Rapid, cost-effective and quantitative skin microbiome analysis — not influenced by host DNA. Comprehensive coverage of oily, dry and moist sites with subspecies resolution, without the costs, waiting times and data burden of sequencing.
The challenge
Overcoming the challenges of host DNA
Skin microbiome samples are typically low in microbial biomass and heavily contaminated with human skin cells — over 90% of the total DNA in skin samples can correspond to human DNA.
Shotgun metagenomics struggles to detect microbial DNA in such samples reliably: high host DNA levels impact detection rates and reproducibility and raise costs through the sequencing depth needed. Amplicon sequencing is not affected by host DNA, but provides poor taxonomic resolution and inaccurate abundance profiling.
PMP™ relies on highly parallelised qPCR, enabling quantitative detection of many microbes simultaneously. All assays are carefully validated, highly specific and true-to-target. PMP™ has been demonstrated to return results concordant with class-leading shotgun sequencing approaches (manuscript in preparation).
Advantages of PMP™
- Not impacted by host DNA or low microbial biomass
- Accurate — sensitive, precise, reproducible
- Cost-effective and scalable to projects of any size
- Absolute quantification — measures abundance and microbial load
- High taxonomic resolution — subspecies level
- Comprehensive — more than 50 key skin microbes
- Fast — ready-to-use results in 2–5 days
- Simple data output — no bioinformatic steps needed
What the test includes
The PMP™ Skin Microbiome Test v2.0 targets more than 50 rationally selected key bacterial and fungal skin species. Analysis of mites can be ordered as an add-on. Combined gut and skin profiling is available for gut–skin axis studies, and custom qPCR assays and panels are available on request.
Who it is for
- Skincare and cosmetic product developers (‘microbiome-friendly’ claim substantiation)
- Nutrition and wellness professionals
- Dermatology R&D
- Academic research
Planning a skin microbiome study?
Tell us about your sample sites, study size and product questions.