On the 17th, Professor Jo Soo-yeon's research team in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University said it developed an ultra-precise sensor interface that can use a near-infrared (nIR)-based nanosensor array to analyze, in real time, photoaging stress that occurs in the skin with high spatiotemporal resolution.
Skin photoaging is a gradually progressing aging phenomenon caused by repeated exposure to ultraviolet rays, which damages cellular structure and lowers function, becoming a major cause of various skin problems such as wrinkles and loss of elasticity. However, existing research methods rely on staining or protein extraction, making continuous spatiotemporal analysis impossible, and they can confirm reactions only under strong stimulation conditions, making it difficult to precisely observe changes in real-life environments.
The research team developed a sensor by combining deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and a biocompatible substance that helps skin cells adhere well to a carbon nanomaterial thinner than one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair. This sensor allows skin cells to grow stably while sensitively detecting subtle oxidative stress. Because it is in direct contact with skin cells, it can detect in real time very small reactive oxygen responses occurring within the skin even under everyday ultraviolet conditions, and it also succeeded in visualizing the "photoadaptation" phenomenon in which cells adapt to ultraviolet rays.
After applying various antioxidant components such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and plant extracts to skin cells and tracking cellular responses in real time with this sensor, the team could visually confirm and numerically compare how effectively each component reduced intracellular oxidative stress. This shows that a much more precise and reliable analysis is possible compared with conventional subjective and indirect experimental methods.
The research team said, "This technology can precisely observe the subtle responses of skin cells to everyday ultraviolet exposure down to the single-cell level, and it visually confirms and quantitatively compares the efficacy of antioxidant components, presenting broad application potential for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries."
The results were published online in the international journal "Science Advances" on the 12th.
References
Science Advances (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt2296