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Testing the amount of Sun Guard Laundry Aid Required to Most Effectively Protect Human Skin�Maura Dianno¹, Sarah Lande¹, Logan Lowery¹, Nicholas Nautiyal¹, Keenan Wiggins¹�¹Emory University�

Objective

• The objective of this experiment was to use Rad1 yeast as a model organism to test the best amount of Sun guard Laundry Aid to be used to protect human skin

Introduction & Background

• Is there a less hassle, more efficient way to protect human skin from UV exposure?
• Overexposure to harmful UV rays can lead to skin cancer, the most common cancer in the United States [1]
• Rad1 yeast was used as a model organism to represent human skin because of its nucleotide excision repair pathway and lack of its photolyase repair pathway like human cells [4]
• Sun Guard washes into the clothing fibers which absorb broadband UV-R [3]
• The active ingredient in Sun Guard is TINOSORB FD, a chemical additive that absorbs UV Rays [3]
• The product went through extensive UPF testing and certification to verify it is safe and effective for clothing and skin [3]

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References

• [1] National Center for Environmental Health. “UV Radiation.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 June 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/features/uv-radiation-safety/index.html. 
• [2] Montrose Dermatology. “The Three Types of UV Rays.” Montrose Dermatology, 5 Nov. 2018, www.montrosedermatology.com/uncategorized/uv-ray-types/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2021. 
• [3] Edlich , Richard F. “Revolutionary Advances in Sun-Protective Clothing--an Essential Step in Eliminating Skin Cancer in Our World.” Journal of Long-Term Effects of Medical Implants, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2004, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15099187/. 
• [4] L, Prakash. “RAD1.” RAD1 | SGD, Saccharomyces Genome Database, 1976, https://www.yeastgenome.org/locus/S000005943. 

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Future Directions

• The results of UV2 leads me to the question of if the amount of Sun Guard laundry aid clothes are washed in has an impact on significance.
• I would test multiple different amounts (5 grams, 7 grams, 9 grams, and 13 grams) to test this theory that it is more effective at a certain amount
• I would also test how efficient Sun Guard Laundry Aid is as opposed to regular sunscreen. I would like to know if it is comparable and reasonable to use in place of sunscreen
• I would test this by finding the most effective amount of Sun Guard Laundry Aid, and testing fabric washed in it versus a generic sunscreen using the same research approach

Conclusions

• Washing the fabric in a greater amount of Sun Guard Laundry Aid was not more effective than a lesser amount.
• The P value for the fabric with 7.31 g protectant versus the positive control was 0.00003%, which is very statically significant
• The protectant in both amounts (121, 112.25) had more surviving colonies than the plates without protectant (0)
• Sun guard Laundry Aid was effective at protecting Rad1 yeast, a model organism for human skin, from harmful UV rays

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Figure 1: This image illustrates the powerful penetrating nature of UV rays. These are the type of harmful rays from the sun our experiment was designed to protect against. [2]

Results

Acknowledgements

Shreya Reddy

2 negative Controls – No protectant*, 20 sec. UV exposure

4 plates protected by 7.31 g (SunGuard Powder in UV 1 and Fabric in UV 2)

4 plates protected by 22.13 g g (SunGuard Powder in UV 1 and Fabric in UV 2)

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Plates exposed to 20 sec UV Radiation

2 positive Controls – No protectant, No UV radiation

Research Approach

• 10^-5 dilution of Rad1 Yeast
• Plated the same for UV 1 and UV 2
• Recorded the same way

*for UV2 one negative control was fabric with no protectant

Figure 2: This Figure shows the averages of four trial plates showing the surviving colonies under each condition including the positive and negative controls. The graph shows the Sun Guard Laundry Aid powder in two quantities, fabric washed in two quantities of Sun Guard Laundry Aid, a positive control with exposure and no fabric, a positive control with fabric and exposure, and a negative control.

A P-test was done to test to test the statistical significance between the fabric washed in Sun Guard and no protection . P-test value was <0.05%