From Yale, a new sunblock that doesn’t penetrate the skin

Researchers at Yale have developed a sunscreen that doesn't penetrate the skin, eliminating serious health concerns associated with commercial sunscreens. Most commercial sunblocks are good at preventing sunburn, but they can go below the skin's surface and enter the bloodstream. As a result, they pose possible hormonal side effects and could even be promoting the kind of skin cancers they're designed to prevent. But researchers at Yale have developed a new sunblock, made with bioadhesive nanoparticles, that stays on the surface of the skin. Results of the research appear in the Sept. 28 online edition of. "We found that when we apply the sunblock to the skin, it doesn't come off, and more importantly, it doesn't penetrate any further into the skin," said the paper's senior author, Mark Saltzman, the Goizueta Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering.