Skin barrier biology
Mechanism-first writing on skin barrier biology, grounded in primary literature. A growing library of articles and a book built around structure, regulation and pressure.
No routines, no product recommendations. The biology that explains what symptoms can only describe.
The book
A biochemist’s guide to
barrier biology, damage & repair
A mechanism-first synthesis of epidermal barrier biology for scientifically curious readers and skin professionals that sits between popular skincare advice and clinical dermatology texts.
Written by biochemist Geraint Thomas and published by Lucidum Press.
The Book
Rather than organising skin around products or routines, the book uses 3 systems and one unifying framework:
Structure
The physical architecture of the stratum corneum. Corneocytes embedded in an organised lipid matrix, held together by corneodesmosomal adhesion. What gets in and what stays out is determined here.
Regulation
The biochemical operating systems that keep structure functional: pH, enzyme activity, ionic gradients, microbial balance. When they shift, structure starts to work against itself.
Pressure
The cumulative biochemical, environmental and systemic load placed on the first two: surfactants, UV exposure, hard water, cortisol, circadian disruption and stacked actives.
articles
about
I hold a first-class integrated Master’s degree in Biochemistry from Cardiff University, where my research examined death-receptor signalling, apoptosis resistance and cell-survival pathways in breast cancer stem-like cells. The skin barrier is one expression of those principles, not the last.
I wrote The Damaged Skin Barrier because it was the book I was looking for when my own skin became reactive and unstable. It didn’t exist. Every resource told me what to apply. None explained why things had changed.
Education
MBiochem · First Class · Cardiff
Research
European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute
focus
Epidermal biology · lipid biochemistry
Based
Cardiff, South Wales
understanding
Skin type is the wrong question
Oily, dry, sensitive and combination describe what skin looks or feels like, but not necessarily why. A temporary barrier state gets mistaken for a fixed identity, encouraging people to treat each new symptom instead of asking what their skin is responding to.
Your skin is the active party
Skincare is usually sold as the star of the show. The strongest interventions show the opposite. Products alter conditions, remove obstacles or reduce pressure. The biological rebuilding is carried out by the skin itself. The skin is the active party.
What’s coming out of your tap
You’ll read a cleanser’s ingredient list and never think about the water you rinse it off with. In hard water, calcium and magnesium alter how surfactants behave and promote deposition at the skin surface. It’s an exposure you repeat several hundred times a year, and almost nobody talks about it.
platform index
The platform is built around a growing archive of mechanism-first articles, a forthcoming book, and a fully cited reference framework. Here is where it currently stands.
/ 01
The Book
/ 02
Articles
/ 03
References
/ 04
Clinics
/ 05
Future work
Skin barrier biology
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