Arcaea Acquires Gadusol To Speed Development Of Natural Sunscreen That Protects You Like A Fish

Sustainability Arcaea Acquires Gadusol To Speed Development Of Natural Sunscreen That Protects You Like A Fish Jeff Kart Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience. Got it! Aug 2, 2022, 03:00pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The zebrafish shares a similar genetic structure to humans.

AFP via Getty Images Have you ever seen a fish wearing sunblock? Of course not, because they possess natural compounds that protect them from the negative effects of that big yellow star in the sky. Gadusol Laboratories , an Oregon State University spinout founded five years ago to synthetically produce ultraviolet-absorbing compounds found in marine life, has just been acquired by Arcaea , a Boston-based beauty company. Terms were not disclosed, but Arcaea CEO Jasmina Aganovic says the move means products with the filtering power of creatures like the zebrafish will be available to consumers sooner than you may think.

Like the name of the lab, zebrafish can produce a chemical called gadusol that protects against skin cancer-causing UV radiation from the sun. But developing this doesn’t mean harvesting bunches of zebrafish and other sea life. “They’ve developed a way to biosynthesize, develop a microbe that could produce the same compound,” Aganovic says.

Which means they can do it in a lab, using biotechnology to craft a sunblock without the chemicals used in traditional sprays and lotions (which ironically have been linked to cancer risks in humans. ) Jasmina Aganovic, CEO of Arcaea Arcaea Recommended For You 1 Is Carbon Capture Another Fossil Fuel Industry Con? More stories like this Fewer stories like this 2 Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth More stories like this Fewer stories like this 3 Trouble With Predicting Future Of Transportation Is That Today Gets In The Way More stories like this Fewer stories like this The founders of Gadusol Laboratories—Katie Pettinger, Dr. Taifo Mahmud and Dr.

Alan Bakalinsky—have all joined the team of Arcaea, earlier launched on the Ginkgo Bioworks cell programming platform. “With the acquisition, we really see the opportunity to produce a whole suite of ingredients,” Aganovic says, such as selling to industry or launching a brand or product of their own. “Right now, we’re not a liberty to say exactly what we will be doing with gadusol.

” How soon before people are filtering themselves like fish? “We are aiming to not make it too long,” the CEO says, adding that teaming with Gadusol Laboratories has accelerated internal timelines by almost two years. “It’s much sooner than many people may think. ” A microscope overlay from the Arcaea lab.

Arcaea Aganovic says sustainability is a key factor in this innovation. “We’re being inspired by and not extracting from nature,” she says, adding that “it’s interesting that this comes from the ocean. A lot of people are talking about how sunscreens might not be great for the ocean” due to the impacts of chemicals on marine life .

The CEO says the upgraded Arcaea team will enable the creation of products that are environmentally safe and beneficial for the skin and overall health while also outperforming their chemical counterparts. “There’s a lot of versatility for how this pipeline of molecules can be used,” Aganovic says. Approval by the Food and Drug Administration or other agencies will be required for the U.

S. market, and the outlook is bright. “We have done validation in humans,” Aganovic says.

“We also have a bunch of prototypes that we internally are testing. ” Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website .

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