SBIR Phase I: Building the sunscreen of the future

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是开发和分析验证一种新的生物启发材料作为替代紫外线（UV）过滤器，以满足直接的社会和环境需求，即最大限度地减少太阳辐射的影响，而不会对人类健康或海洋生态系统构成风险。这是重要的，因为现有的商业防晒剂存在五个显著的问题：（1）大部分市售防晒剂在保护皮肤免受UV辐射方面是无效的。(2)超过65%的非矿物质防晒霜含有对海洋生态系统有毒的化学物质（即，海洋的珊瑚礁）。(3)许多常见的传统防晒化学品甚至可能对人体不安全，目前正在由监管机构重新评估。(4)更安全的矿物防晒霜由于其负面的美学特性（包括皮肤上厚厚的白色涂层）而很少被采用。(5)早期的证据表明，越来越多的人担心，新的微米和纳米矿物防晒剂配方，这是视觉上更有吸引力，也对皮肤和环境的有毒影响。拟议的技术创新旨在取代目前使用的技术，使其成为更安全、更环保、更有效的替代品。该项目将克服三个技术障碍，将一种新的成分引入防晒市场。第一个目的是简化本工作中提出的核心分子类别的化学，以最终将原材料的生产成本降低到市场可行的水平。第二个将是评估它们在一系列防晒系数下在配方中的实用性和有效性。除了其UV过滤性能之外，还将评价制剂的光稳定性和热稳定性。第三个奖项是研究配方中拟议材料的安全性，包括细胞相容性和抗微生物测定。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop and analytically validate a new, bio-inspired material as an alternative ultraviolet (UV)-filter that would fill an immediate societal and environmental need, which is to minimize the impacts of solar radiation without posing a risk to human health or the marine ecosystem. This is important, as existing commercial sunscreens suffer from five significant problems: (1) A large proportion of marketed sunscreens are ineffective at protecting skin from UV radiation. (2) Over 65% of non-mineral sunscreens contain chemicals that are toxic to marine ecosystems (i.e., ocean’s coral reefs). (3) Many common, conventional sunscreen chemicals may not even be human-safe and are currently being re-evaluated by regulatory bodies. (4) There is poor adoption of the safer, mineral-based sunscreens due to their negative aesthetic properties including a thick, white coating on the skin. (5) Early evidence indicates growing concerns that newer micro- and nano-based formulations of mineral sunscreens, which are visually more appealing, also have toxic impacts on both skin and the environment. The proposed technology innovation is aimed at replacing those currently in use as a safer, ecofriendly, and more effective alternative. The proposed project will overcome three technical hurdles involved in bringing a new ingredient into the suncare market. The first is aimed at simplifying the chemistry of the core class of molecules proposed in this work to ultimately reduce the production costs of the raw material to a market viable rate. The second will be to assess their utility and effectiveness in formulations at a range of sun protection factors. In addition to their UV-filtering performance, the photo- and thermal- stabilities of the formulations will be evaluated. The third is to investigate the safety of the proposed materials in formulations including cytocompatibility and anti-microbial assays.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.