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Your skin has proteins in it that help you skin stay healthy (the “targets”).  Your skin also has natural compounds that interact with the proteins (to turn them on or off) or are affected by the proteins (to build them up or break them down).    Sometimes these interactions change at we get older or as the sun damages our skin.  I use 3D graphics to build models of how those interactions work, and then find compounds (very similar to the natural ones) that we can put into our skin products that help your skin work better — so old skin looks younger or damaged skin looks healthier.  

A typical project takes several months, and goes through certain stages.  Although each project is different, so every day is different, there are some things that are the same.  I have to find out everything I can about the target, make a model of the target (a hypothesis) , make sure the model actually works (validation), and then use the model to find new compounds (search our database of 12 million existing compounds or help the chemists design new compounds).  I work very closely with other scientists who do all sorts of things on the project: compound synthesis, test how well the compounds affect the target, stability of the compounds in formulation or in the skin, test how well the compounds penetrate the skin, and many others.