SkinImpact

The skin is the body’s outer layer and it must maintain its elasticity, firmness and tensile strength. Objective evaluation of skin biomechanical properties is crucial for diagnosis, for monitoring treatments response and can help improving theragnostic strategies. Skin pathologies such as acute cutaneous wounds, scars and tumors are crucial public health issues. Melanoma is the first cancer in terms of increasing frequency and its early detection is crucial for the patient outcome. Moreover, skin firmness is an important property targeted by cosmetic products. A quantitative estimation of the skin biomechanical parameters would be useful for clinicians to be able to choose the optimal medical or cosmetic treatment in a patient-specific manner. A decision-support system providing information on the evolution of the skin properties would constitute a game changer in dermatology and in cosmetic industry. However, current techniques use empirical evidences and it remains difficult to evaluate the skin biomechanical properties in vivo, which prevents developing a personalized medicine approach. Biomechanical assessment methods are still immature because of the lack of rigorous mathematical models and robust forward/inverse algorithms to predict the skin behavior. SkinImpact aims at understanding the phenomena occurring during the measurement procedure of the skin biomechanical properties using an impact-based device for which the in vitro proof of concept has been obtained. SkinImpact will lead to the development of a medical device for the estimation of the skin biomechanical properties. We will focus on modeling the skin dynamic behavior and on the development of inversion methods to assess the skin properties. We will develop i) a validated multiscale model of the skin biomechanical behavior at different strain rates, ii) computing methods for the forward problem of the skin nonlinear dynamic behavior under impacts, iii) robust model-based inversion methods to retrieve the skin parameters and iv) an improved experimental set-up for the measurement of skin properties allowing to obtain a proof of concept validated in vitro and in vivo. Eventually, we will investigate the commercial potential and design a commercial exploitation strategy as well as refine the regulatory steps needed for future market approval. The originality of SkinImpact is that instead of using empirical approaches, quantitative procedures using a model-based strategy will be employed. SkinImpact will lay the foundations of a groundbreaking mathematical approach consisting of developing multiscale models associated with the relevant numerical methods to assess the skin properties. SkinImpact will combine experimental surgery, modeling and multimodality measurements. Experimental surgery will allow to obtain a realistic preclinical configuration in order to validate the models. Modeling and simulation will be the core of the project since it aims at deriving a rigorous inversion method to retrieve the skin biomechanical properties. Multimodality measurements will allow to provide input data from the experiments into the model. Surgeons will provide their knowledge on the skin biology, which is useful to develop relevant models anchored in clinical practice. The predictive model will be validated experimentally from the preclinical trials. The SkinImpact consortium brings together leading partners in their respective field, including academic institutions and a SME. This Consortium is a balanced mix of partners from universities, research institutes, hospitals and Start-up that complement each other to cover a wide spectrum of scientific knowledge and technological innovation that the project relies on. SkinImpact will allow the promotion of an innovative solution in dermatology, plastic surgery and in the cosmetic industry. Strong impacts are associated to SkinImpact for patients, physicians and cosmetic manufacturers.