Side-by-Side Comparison of Skin Biopsies and Skin Tape Stripping Highlights Abnormal Stratum Corneum in Atopic Dermatitis.

Skin biopsies are commonly used for the assessment of skin pathology in various skin diseases, including atopic dermatitis (AD). However, because of the invasive nature of skin biopsies, many patients, particularly children, decline participation. This can lead to potential subject sampling bias as data could be skewed toward more severe, older patients who are willing to have biopsies.

Lipid abnormalities in atopic skin are driven by type 2 cytokines.

Lipids in the stratum corneum of atopic dermatitis (AD) patients differ substantially in composition from healthy subjects. We hypothesized that hyperactivated type 2 immune response alters AD skin lipid metabolism. We have analyzed stratum corneum lipids from nonlesional and lesional skin of AD subjects and IL-13 skin-specific Tg mice.

Pre-Assembly of Near-Infrared Fluorescent Multivalent Molecular Probes for Biological Imaging.

A programmable pre-assembly method is described and shown to produce near-infrared fluorescent molecular probes with tunable multivalent binding properties. The modular assembly process threads one or two copies of a tetralactam macrocycle onto a fluorescent PEGylated squaraine scaffold containing a complementary number of docking stations. Appended to the macrocycle periphery are multiple copies of a ligand that is known to target a biomarker.