Skin is never still.
Skin is a mechanical organ.
Tension, stiffness and the daily loading of movement, friction and stretch shape how skin behaves. These cues are absent from conventional in-vitro assays. NeoMag® closes the gap.
A translational gap in skin research.
You are asked to substantiate a claim about skin, and the assay underneath it still runs on plastic (~GPa) or on a gel of uncontrolled stiffness: skin studied in a mechanically irrelevant context. Dermal stiffness at the cellular scale is ~0.1–10 kPa and rises with age, reshaping wound healing, ageing, pigmentation, inflammation and barrier function. That distance between the model and the organ is the one we close.
It works at the cellular level and impacts the tissue
Force is processed, not just felt
The cytoskeleton filters every mechanical signal. Two cells under identical strain respond differently if the cytoskeleton is aged, inflamed, UV-damaged or drug-modulated.
Forces reach the nucleus
Signals travel through the LINC complex to the nuclear envelope, reorganising chromatin and YAP/TAZ and rewriting gene expression.
Cellular architecture drives photoprotection
Genome protection depends less on how much melanin a cell makes than on where pigment sits (positioned by keratins K5/K14, microtubules, plectin). A new claim territory.
Benito-Martínez et al., Nature Cell Biology, 2025.
The science already points to load.
Ageing is mechanical
Skin ageing is increasingly described as dynamic, mechanical remodelling of the ECM, not just biochemical decline.
Yin N, et al. Microsystems & Nanoengineering, 2026. DOI ↗Cyclic load improves skin
Cyclic deformation enhances differentiation, barrier and collagen production via YAP/TAZ, with an optimum around ~20–25% strain.
Kaiser K, et al. Materials Today Bio, 2024. DOI ↗Physiological range
Physiological skin strain runs ~5–20%, reaching up to ~60% over joints, a window static assays never touch.
Guenat OT, Berthiaume F. Biomicrofluidics, 2018. DOI ↗Selected parameters are being reconfirmed against primary sources ahead of public claims.
Real loading, defined as parameters.
Sustained compression
Prolonged loading, ~3% sustained deformation at 0 Hz: the slow, static pressure skin holds under posture and contact.
Expression mechanics
Cyclic loading, ~3% deformation at 0.05–0.20 Hz: the repetitive stretch of facial movement and expression.
The NeoMag® platform from 60Nd operates over a substrate stiffness range of 0.04 to 30 kPa, applies deformation from 0 to over 15 percent with up to 30 percent reachable, and actuates at frequencies from 0 to over 1 Hz. Platform operating ranges measured by 60Nd.
For pharma and dermocosmetics
Test under real conditions
Evaluate compounds under physiologically relevant mechanical loading, revealing efficacy that static culture misses.
New, defensible biomarkers
Mechanotransduction readouts (YAP/TAZ localisation, cytoskeletal remodelling, nuclear morphology, mechanosensitive genes) support stronger claims for anti-ageing, wound healing, pigmentation and barrier products.
Differentiated science
Move beyond antioxidants and hydration toward original claims: cellular resilience, structural architecture, mechanical-ageing signatures.
From active to evidence, in four steps.
Define the regime
Choose the physiological loading (stiffness, deformation, frequency, duration) relevant to your claim.
Run under load
Apply your active to human skin models while NeoMag® delivers the exact mechanical input.
Read mechanotransduction
Quantify YAP/TAZ, cytoskeletal remodelling, nuclear morphology, modulus and mechanosensitive genes.
Bridge to the clinic
Tie the in-vitro modulus to the same physical quantity measured in vivo for defensible claims.
Skin conditions where mechanics drive the disease
Atopic dermatitis
Barrier dysfunction and inflammation modulated by chronic mechanical stress, scratching and cell-stiffness changes.
Psoriasis
Repetitive shear in flexural zones acts as trigger and amplifier (Koebner phenomenon in up to 75% of patients).
Alopecia areata
The hair-follicle niche responds to mechanical cues affecting inflammation and regeneration.
Skin fibrosis
Stiffness drives fibrosis via Piezo1–Wnt feedback loops.
Mechanically-grounded claims, with a clinical bridge.
| Claim | In-vitro readout | Clinical bridge |
|---|---|---|
| Firmness / elasticity | Collagen lattice contraction, construct modulus, cell stiffness | Shear-wave elastography, Cutometer |
| Anti-ageing | Procollagen-I, ↓MMP-1/3, collagen organisation | 3D profilometry, ultrasound |
| Hydration | Hyaluronic acid, aquaporin-3, filaggrin | Corneometry, TEWL |
| Soothing | ↓IL-1/6/8, TNF-α, PGE2 | Erythema scoring |
The strongest in-vitro↔clinical link is mechanical: measure the same physical quantity (modulus) in vitro and in vivo.
Preclinical and commercial ammunition.
Preclinical ammunition
Mechanism-based, mechanically-grounded data that de-risks a candidate and strengthens the case to advance it.
Commercial ammunition
Original, defensible claims that differentiate a product beyond antioxidants and hydration in a crowded market.
Realism, delivered with control.
More controlled than in vivo
Mechanical input as a precise, repeatable parameter, isolated from biological variability.
Decouples mechanics from chemistry
Hold biochemistry constant while varying load to establish causality and mechanism of action.
Human-relevant and ethical
Works with human cells, narrowing species gaps and reducing animal use (3Rs).
Scalable & complementary
Head-to-head compound ranking; layers onto molecular, organotypic and animal models.