Genomics Take the Cake at the SCC December Meeting

By: Rachel Grabenhofer, C&T magazine

Posted: December 28, 2010

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Following the morning session, the awards luncheon began with the presentation of the prestigious Maison G. deNavarre Medal Award to Yash Kamath, PhD. Upon receiving the award, Kamath commented, “When we started at TRI, hair research was only 10-15% of our work; now it is 100%.” Additional awards included: the Shaw Mudge Award to Betsy Schmalz Ferguson; the Allan B. Black Award to Jane Hollenberg and co-authors; the Hans A. Schaefer Award to Jennifer Marsh, PhD; the Joseph P. Ciaudelli Award to Hiroto Tanamachi et al.; the Des Goddard Award to Melanie Urdiales; the Society of Cosmetic Chemists Award to Vito Cataldo et al.; and finally, the Frontiers of Science Award to Philip Wertz, PhD.

After lunch, two concurrent sessions began; one on genomics and the other on hair styling. The session on genomics kicked off with Nava Dayan, PhD (Lipo Chemicals Inc.), who spoke on the correlation between cell viability and DNA damage. With age, according to Dayan, expression of micronuclei increases, which is indicative of genetic damage. This increase in micronuclei can lead to skin aging and cancer, which often is known as the aging disease. Dayan noted that there are compounds that cause the formation of micronuclei through exposure and contamination. To identify which compounds cause cell death related to metabolic dysfunction as opposed to cell death that is caused by mutations of the DNA, Dayan recommends conducting cell viability assessment concurrently with observation of chromosomal aberrations.

Remona Gopaul of Nu Skin Enterprises followed Dayan with a review of the techniques used for gene expression profiling of skin. Gopaul discussed small-scale techniques such as northern blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in addition to large-scale techniques such as microarrays, serial analysis for gene expression and RNA sequencing. She advised cosmetic formulators to become more knowledgeable of the benefits and downsides of the genomic techniques before choosing one that effectively tests their product. Throughout the session, the term ‘epigenetics' was tossed around in a few discussions, of which experts think the industry will begin to see more.

During the hair styling session, Timothy Gao, PhD (Croda Inc.), described hair color vibrance as a new claim combining both hair shine and strength. Trefor Evans, PhD (TRI-Princeton), discussed the penetration and substantivity of materials in hair, noting that the molecule having the biggest effect on hair is water.

Thomas Dawson, PhD (Procter & Gamble), discussed hair health in relation to effects of diameter, density and age. He concluded that while decreasing number density is important, so is decreasing diameter. Finally, Colleen Rocafort provided an overview of innovations in hair styling. For example, the recent focus on thermal damage, protein and elastin polymers for strength, shape/malleable hold, and the addition of particles such as clay for claimed volumizing effects, body/springiness and bounce. She also noted products that aim to set but not remain stiff.