Scientists Looking to Biosynthetically Reproduce Natural Sunscreen From Coral Into Pill Form

Some of the greatest discoveries in history – like penicillin, the microwave, and superglue – all happened by accident when scientists were doing something else. The same may soon be said about the sunscreen pill.

Scientists from King’s College London have been studying how coral produces a natural sunscreen that protects it from damaging ultraviolet rays.

This is part of a long-term study to create a substance that would make crops more UV-tolerant and better able to better withstand harsh sunlight in tropical regions. The potential for creating a natural sunscreen for people came secondary.

Dr. Paul Long, senior lecturer from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at King’s College London said, “the long-term goal of the King’s study is to look at whether these processes could also be used for developing sustainable agriculture in the Third World.”

“If we do this in crop plants that have been bred in temperate climates for high yield, but that would not grow in the tropics because of high exposure to sunlight, this could be a way of providing sustainable nutrition-rich foods that are of particular need in Third World countries,” he continued.

The scientists are also researching how the coral’s natural defense mechanism against UV-light works so they can biosynthesize a sunscreen pill for human use.

To better understand how the natural synthesizing process works, the college explains that coral is an animal which has a unique symbiotic partnership with the algae that lives inside it.

The algae uses photosynthesis to make food for the coral and the coral waste products are used by the algae for photosynthesis. Because photosynthesis needs sunlight to work, the coral must live in shallow water, which means it is vulnerable to sunburn.

Long detailed the findings, saying that, “We already knew that coral and some algae can protect themselves from the harsh UV rays in tropical climates by producing their own sunscreens, but until now we didn’t know how.”

“What we have found is that algae living within the coral makes a compound that we think is transported to the coral, which then modifies it into sunscreen for the benefit of both the coral and the algae. Not only does this protect them both from UV damage, but we have seen that fish that feed on the coral also benefit from this sunscreen protection, so it is clearly passed up the food chain,” he added.

Long’s research team is currently working on determining how the compound is created and passed on, and how can it be biosynthesized in the laboratory to create a sunscreen for human use – in pill form – that would work in a similar way.

Long said that hopefully “this could mean that people can get built in sun protection for their skin and eyes by taking a tablet containing these compounds. We are very close to producing this compound in the lab and if all goes well we would expect to test it within the next few years.”

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