SCC Annual Meeting Focus: The Means to an End

By: Rachel Grabenhofer, Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine

Posted: December 22, 2009

NEW YORK—The SCC Annual Meeting and Technology Showcase, held Dec. 10-11, 2009, at the New York Hilton focused on the traditional categories, from sunscreens and modeling/data assessment, to skin biology, formulating and hair color, but this year had a particularly heavy focus on the methods or means to an end within these categories, especially in relation to testing for efficacy.

Opening the conference, 2009 SCC President Gary Agisim of Pfizer (formerly Wyeth) welcomed attendees. According to Agisim, event pre-registrations totaled about 1,000 in spite of the economy, which impressed him. The tone in his voice was bittersweet in that this event would be his last as president. “The most important achievement of my presidency is that I’ve had fun,” said Agisim.

The first scientific session, moderated by Mindy Goldstein, PhD, covered sunscreens and the keynote lecture, “Improving Sunscreen Photostability by Quenching the Singlet Excited State,” given by Craig Bonda of The Hallstar Company, set the bar high for the talks that followed. Bonda introduced ethylhexyl methoxycrylene as a photostabilizer that preserves butylmethoxy dibenzoylmethane’s ability to absorb UVA and UVB in the presence of octyl methoxycinnamate due to its speed. Additionally, he showed that the material can stabilize retinol, to preserve it from photodegradation.

Following Bonda, Howard Epstein of EMD Chemicals addressed safety in sun care with his discussion of reducing the dermal uptake of organic sunscreens via an encapsulation technology. According to Epstein, the technology he described was developed during a time when sunscreens were thought to be dangerous. Considering sensitive skin—as Zoe Draelos, MD, pointed out during the question and answer (Q/A) session—this technology could be applicable specifically in sunscreens for children. Also considering safety, Pascal Delrieu, PhD, of Kobo Products presented, “Non-nano Zinc Oxide,” describing means to measure the sizes of particles ranging from electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering to laser diffraction and acoustic attenuation. In the end, he added that there still is no clear evidence that nanoparticles penetrate the skin.

The Frontiers of Science Award Lecture, sponsored by Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine, featured the DNA work of Nadrian C. Seeman, PhD. Seeman, who is specialized in biological crystallography, reached far beyond the day-to-day of formulating and forced attendees to think in terms of not only DNA helices but self-assembled 3D crystalline structures. He described applications of his work including a self-assembling “walker,” which can carry cargo as it moves to replicate along a DNA strand. While the concept is very early in its stages of development, as one attendee pointed out, this has the potential to serve as a future delivery mechanism in cosmetics and personal care.