Understudied Skin Characteristics Awaiting Genetic Breakthroughs

Skin is the human body's largest organ and the first to contact various environments. There are considerable variations of normal skin characteristics within and between populations. For example, skin containing more melanin looks darker, people with reduced axial sweating tend to have less body odor, and skin with higher lipid and water content has an improved barrier. For decades, dermatologists have been developing new methods to measure differences in normal skin characteristics. However, most of these studies were carried out at the clinical level. Research at the molecular level, in contrast, has become more common only in the last decade.