Imagine you’re headed for the beach, and you search the medicine chest for sunscreen. When you find a bottle and inspect the label, though, you’re not checking for its SPF. You’re making sure it contains DNA.
That’s because medical researchers at Binghamton University in New York have developed a sunscreen coating made out of DNA that gets stronger the longer you expose it to the sun. So you may get SPF protection that doesn’t require re-application, even after you’ve spent the day frolicking in the water.
“Ultraviolet light can actually damage DNA, and that’s not good for the skin,” Guy German, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Binghamton University, explained in a press release. “We thought, let’s flip it.”
The result? The sunscreen uses the DNA as a “sacrificial layer,” German says. So rather than damaging the DNA within the skin, the sunscreen’s DNA absorbs the UV damage, leaving the skin untouched.
The DNA compound created by the scientists dries into a solid film on surfaces, and are transparent to the eye, though packed with DNA crystals. The more the researchers exposed this film to UV, the better the film got at absorbing it.
“If you translate that, it means to me that if you use this as a topical cream or sunscreen, the longer that you stay out on the beach, the better it gets at being a sunscreen,” German says.
The secret? Salmon sperm!
One thing that may not make it onto the label of that future sunscreen product? That the researchers’ compound was made from salmon sperm, water, and ethanol.
The reason this mixture is so effective may owe to the fact salmon sperm need to survive in the water while their genetic cargo from sunlight and other factors before finding an egg to inseminate.
The film also delivers significant hydrating effects, allowing skin coated with it to store and retain much more water than uncoated skin. This may make it viable as a coating for wounds, too, allowing transparent dressings that also help keep wounds in a moist environment that’s better for healing.
