Scytonemin - Why You are Going to Love it

Hot off the press! Scytonemin is on the scene! It's fresh – it's exciting! Get ready to love it! In the hopefully near future, you are going to be looking for it – even demanding it – in your skin care products.

Are you ready? Are you with me? Good, because scytonemin is, in fact, a product of bacteria.

What's so Cool About it

Scytonemin is produced by certain cyanobacteria (more commonly known as blue-green algae). These algae live in harsh sunlight and need protection from the suns rays in order to survive. They do so by producing a UV-light-absorbing substance called – you guessed it – scytonemin. In short, scytonemin is a supremely efficient, all-natural sunblock.

The Swedish Scientist

Meet Isabella Karlsson – a very clever Swedish scientist. She has been studying sunscreens, how they work, what they do after they have been applied to our skin, and why some sunscreens cause allergic reactions in some people.

She's found some interesting things about what happens and can explain exactly why some sunblocks (like 4-tert-butyl-4'-methoxy dibenzoylmethane, BM-DBM and octocrylene) aren't tolerated well by some. Needless to say, Isabella Karlssons thesis is causing a bit of a stir in the scientific community (or at least the corner of it that I am in contact with).

What Isabella Karlsson Did

In collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology, Isabella Karlsson has managed to reproduce scytonemin in a lab, bringing this effective, allergen-free sunblock a step closer to being available for use in commercial products.

What's Next

More research will have to be done before scytonemin will be on the ingredients list of your fave sun products, but I'm guessing there is going to be quite a bit of interest from the industry while testing continues.

Does Her Thesis Hold Water?

Yes. Isabella Karlssons thesis Chemical and Dermatological Aspects of UV-absorbing Compounds has been successfully defended at a disputation held at the University of Gothenburg.

Along with Isabella Karlsson, the authors of the paper are Andreas Ekebergh, Rudi Mete, Ye Pan, Anna Börje, and Jerker Mårtensson.