The development of high throughput biochemical screening technology began in the mid-1980s. Robotic operation coupled with laboratory information management systems in combination with miniaturized signal reading systems enable the screening of literally millions of samples per assay per annum.
The novel, mechanism-based, automatic and miniaturized high throughput screening (HTS) technology presents both an opportunity and a challenge for natural bioactive ingredients, also called cosmeceuticals, that have been widely introduced into cosmetic products (see sidebar). This article describes a biomaterial technology platform for generating and screening a library of natural ingredients. One application of this platform is for discovering new cosmeceutical ingredients. Several inflammation inhibitors, a skin brightener, an antioxidant and an antiaging ingredient will be discussed.
