Send us your markers and your sampling constraint
Tell us the cytokines and pathways that matter, and what your study can realistically collect. Repeated biopsy is often the binding constraint in dermatology, and it changes the analytical answer.
We will tell you which markers are detectable in which matrix, whether ISF is the right route, and whether a pilot is worth running first. That reply comes within one working day.
THE CHALLENGE
Molecular resolution without the burden of repeated biopsy
Dermatology is one of the most active areas in modern drug development. Atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, alopecia areata and vitiligo are each shaped by precise immune pathways, including IL-4 and IL-13 Th2 signalling, IL-17 and IL-23 Th17 signalling, JAK-STAT and complement.
But biomarker research in skin disease has long faced a trade-off.
Punch biopsy gives tissue-level signal, and it is invasive, painful, scarring and impractical to repeat across a longitudinal study.
Plasma is accessible, and local skin biology is diluted into a systemic signal that can be difficult to separate from everything else happening in the body.
The analytical challenge is not detecting biomarkers.
It is accessing the biology at the right level, with enough sensitivity to measure it once you are there.
THE CHALLENGE
A third route: interstitial fluid
Punch biopsy gives tissue-level signal, but it is invasive, painful, scarring and impractical to repeat across a longitudinal study.
Plasma is accessible, but local skin biology is diluted into a systemic signal that is hard to separate from everything else happening in the body.
The challenge is not detecting biomarkers. It is reaching the biology at the right level – and having the sensitivity to measure it once you are there.
Interstitial fluid sits between the two. Sampled with microneedle-based devices, ISF carries the local protein signature of skin, including cytokines, chemokines and soluble immune mediators, without the invasiveness, scarring or recovery t…
Longitudinal monitoring across a treatment course
Paediatric studies, where biopsy is often not appropriate
Cosmetics and dermocosmetics testing, where biopsy was never a viable product-development readout
Any programme needing repeated local measurement at the same site
Skin tissue → interstitial fluid → systemic circulation. ISF is the middle term, and until recently it was not analytically accessible.
We have validated dermal ISF biomarker quantification on the NULISA platform in direct partnership with Ascilion, using their PELSA microneedle device. Validation is in active development for Simoa and MSD, and we will tell you plainly which is validated today and which is not.
Read more about interstitial fluid
WHAT WE MEASURE
Match pathway, sensitivity and matrix
Deep inflammatory profiling
Pathway-focused multiplexing
Ultra-low cytokine detection
Specialist skin matrices
Proteomics with genomics
Targets with no assay
Applications
Validated for the matrix that matters
Validated
ISF on NULISA
In Development
ISF on Simoa · ISF on MSD
The Ascilion partnership has built hands-on familiarity with device performance, sample-handling protocols and the matrix-specific validation requirements ISF imposes. Bespoke matrix validation supports additional non-standard dermatology samples where a study design requires them.
We state which platform is validated in which matrix. In a matrix this novel, that distinction is the difference between a study that works and one that produces nothing.
The practical detail
Turnaround
Two weeks from sample receipt, confirmed at quote. Feasibility pilots return faster
Quote
Sample confirmation
Matrices
ISF platform status
ISF sampling device
Feasibility pilot
Quality framework
We know which skin matrix works
Tell us about your programme
Send us your markers, your sampling constraint and your study design, and a senior scientist will tell you which matrix and platform combination fits, including when plasma alone would answer the question.