This is scientific American 60 second science. I'm Christopher Intagiyata.

Your skin, just like many other parts of your body, is crawling with microscopic critters.

It's a microbial zoo in a sense.

Heidi Kong, a dermatology researcher at the National Institutes of Health.

And that microbial zoo, the types of microbes in it, changes over time.

Kong and her team observed some of those changes during of microbes in it changes over time.

Kong and her team observed some of those changes during a flare-up of eczema,

a condition characterized by itchy inflamed skin.

On healthy skin and on patients with mild eczema, the researchers found a diverse

roster of bacterial residents including a species of staff bacteria called

Staphylococcus epidemitis. But in patients suffering a severe bout of eczema

that diversity was disrupted and strains but in patients suffering a severe bout of eczema

that diversity was disrupted and strains

of a different staff species dominated,

Staphylococcus aureus.

The research team then collected those staff aria

strains from the eczema sufferers and swab

them on the skin of mice. And that once healthy mouse skin grew thicker, has a dozen

eczema and was invaded by immune response cells.

While not proof, the results suggest that certain strains of staff bacteria

could be culpable in worsening eczema flares.

The studies in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The genetic technique

...