Team:Aalto-Helsinki/Applied Design
Applied Design
Early research
When we started to research and design the laboratory part around antimicrobial dermcidin we didn’t have any clear idea of possible application and design. But we had a large number of ideas. The first approach was to use dermcidin in hospital environment, because we knew it would be active against some most common hospital bacteria. During the ideation we decided to include a cellulose binding domain together with dermcidin in order to create a strong binding with cellulose based materials that are widely used in hospitals. We were also thinking could dermcidin be used as a sterilization spray or coating on different surfaces or door handles or could it be used in diapers, cellulose based catheters and implants.
During our process we arranged several meetings (link to the dialog) with professionals from many fields. We went to those meetings with an open mind to be able to reflect our ideas with professionals and get tips and guidance to be able to develop the design process further.
On May in the beginning of our project we had a meeting with Tarja Jalava, a researcher from Bayer. Because of the confidentiality agreement we cannot elaborate more.
First we focused on wound care because the first idea was to create a antimicrobial wound care product like bandage, dressing or antimicrobial gel by using dermcidin instead of for example silver. We met Dermatologist Kirsi Isoherranen and wound care specialized nurse Ulla Väänänen from Skin and Allergy hospital of HUS. They introduced us with versatile world of wound care products and we were able to follow wound care reception and saw how different products are used in action.
Ulla Väänänen showing an antimicrobial gel which is used in wound care.
We also visited another hospital Jorvi and met burn wound specialist Andrew Landlord there. We got really encouraging feedback from both of the visits. We learned about the different techniques and products used when treating burns but since the usage of antimicrobial agents was minimal, especially in the early stages of a healing burn, we decided not to focus too much on this subject.
Changing the topic from wound care to acne
Even the field of hospital product field was really promising for new solutions based on dermcidin we were slightly unsure if the track is correct for us. We wanted to execute a project that would increase the knowledge of synthetic biology and possibilities of it. We felt that specialized hospital product were too narrow approach and impossible way to communicate with people outside the scientific fields. After long discussion between our team members we decided to focus on another idea we had in early beginning in our heads – skin care and especially acne.
What is acne
Acne is a result of four abnormal processes. The male hormones induce the excessive production of sebum in the hair follicles. This excess sebum causes dead skin cells to stick together resulting in a blocked hair follicle. This is called a microcomedone. Inside the clogged pore the biofilm formation by certain strains of the skin commensal Propionibacterium acnes causes inflammation by activating the innate immune system. Several pro-inflammatory chemical signals that are known to contribute in the comedo formation are being released due to the inflammation caused by P.acnes. These chemical signals attract white cells to the hair follicle resulting in a pimple.
Antibiotics are widely used in acne treatments but many countries have reported that around 50% of P.acnes strains are resistant to them. Antimicrobial peptides, or AMPs, have been suggested as an alternative for antibiotics, which was good news for us. What encouraged us more was a study stating that acne patients had reduced expression of dermcidin on their skin, which when fixed, we hoped to result in reduced pimples. Acne is so common problem around the world that it was easy to find common information about it and stories about people struggling with acne. We anyway wanted to dick deeper and arranged meetings with professionals specialized acne and curing it. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
We met Antti Lauerma from Skin and Allergy hospital of HUS in order to learn more about acne and especially how acne patients are diagnosed in hospitals and what kind of medication they are using. We learned that it’s not only bacteria infection making acne skin produce pimples and pustules but it can also be because washing the skin too much which is why skin gets really dry easily and the dry skin and dead skin causes more infection by blocking pores.
To get bigger picture we also talked with Ida-Maria Rantala who is a cosmetologist focused in acne patients. She told us about treatments they are using in beauty clinics and what are the biggest trends in a beauty and skin care markets at the moment.
We got a feeling that people suffering with acne are desperately ready to do really heavy and painful treatments to cure acne or make it at least a bit better. We learned about dramatic side effects caused by some medication and really expensive prices of treatments and products that are commonly used against acne.
Meeting and talking with professionals was really important and we gained a lot of new knowledge. But most inspiring and touching was our talks with normal people who shared their stories with acne really openly. We interviewed (link to dialog here) 4 people about their acne and also we had a survey (link to the survey) where we collected information about people’s acne, causes, levels, backgrounds and most important about products they are using. We wanted to know what kind of products people are willing to use and what kind skin care routines acne patients have. We learned that people suffering acne were more willing to spend money and time to skin care in order to get their acne better. They also were more open for new products and willing to try different treatments and methods.
more than half of the face is involved
more than half of the face is involved
Acne is not only nasty disease but it also can cause low self-esteem and mental problems. These things we talked with Pepita Hänninen (and the link again) psychotherapist focused on working with young people. She thinks that the problem should not be belittled since it can have a major impact on young people. Hänninen thinks that acne can worsen a person’s mental state if they are already feeling insecure or depressed but the skin condition itself is rarely the main cause of mental health problems.
Design process
After interviewing people and going through skin care products, acne products and medication already existing on a market we had a picture in our heads how our product should be like. Antimicrobial, natural and sustainable purifying and exfoliating scrub that is simple to produce and easy to use. We wanted to create natural substitute product for heavy treatments and medicines that currently used for acne.
Porifi – Purify your pores from acne bacteria
Considering our concept and product design, the end product needs to be safe to use on the human skin, on an everyday basis. We are lucky in this regard, as the dermcidin peptide (DCD-1L) we worked with is already present on the human skin. The only thing that needs to be considered is whether abnormally high concentrations of the peptide risk the development of resistance against it. In that case, the body would lose its natural mechanism of defense against acne. One article hypothesizes, however, that it may be much less likely that resistance develops against this peptide, as the peptide is evolutionarily very recent and resistance would require big changes in the constitution of the bacterial cell wall or membrane.
Cellulose hydrogel (CMC)
Cellulose hydrogel
We wanted to use as natural materials as possible and still focus on cellulose materials. Finland is country of wood based biomaterials and especially cellulose so it was really national way to proceed with application design. We decided to work with Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)-based hydrogel because it was really fascinating and new material for us, but it already had proofed to be non-toxic and it is widely used in food industry and as a base material in medicines.
At that point we already got the first sight that cellulose binding testing will take more time than we expected so we decided to start product design in a way that cellulose binding wouldn’t be obligatory.
With CMC we got a lot of support from Aalto Bioproduct Centre and Andreas Lindberg (link dialogiin). He was able to borrow us two CMC powders and advised us with versatile cellulose materials.
Maisa making and experimenting cellulose hydrogel samples
After all research, reflection, ideation and interview the product design process itself was pretty simple. We made several hydrogel mixtures with different textures and densities. We experimented with those and selected the best and most promising ones and measured the viscosity.
Viscosity of the hydrogel was really important property because we wanted to texture be strong enough to be able to mix the hydrogel with exfoliation beads but not too sticky or neither to heavy. Perfect structure was gel kind of hydrogel that softens and gets more viscos on warm surfaces like skin. We conducted measurements using Brookfield rotational viscometer with RV spindles.
We kept temperature constant at 24-25°C and measured hydrogel viscosity at different spindle speeds (0.1 - 200 RPM). We decided to test the hydrogel samples at broad range of speeds due to its non-newtonian behaviour which means that its viscosity decreases under shear strain (shear-thinning effect). Moreover, assuming that the cosmetic will undergo different shear stress while scooping out from the package, keeping still on fingers, and applying on face by rubbing, we were interested how viscosity would change then. We neglected, however, temperature effect by that.
The results of our measurements confirmed the non-newtonian behaviour of the CMC-based hydrogel. When the shear stress increases, the viscosity decreases for all samples (#graph). The viscosity changes by one or two orders of magnitude with applied shear depends on CMC grade. However it is also completely and instantaneously reversible and the original viscosity is retained when the shear stops.
Exfoliants
When we were selecting perfect material for exfoliation beads the most important point was to be environmental friendly and avoid all kind of micro plastics and synthetic materials. First we were thinking about biodegradable cellulose based beads (materials like PLL) but due the lack of time we decided to go on with grinded peach stones. We tested different structures with different hydrogels. We were also critical of microbeads which many cosmetic companies use as exfoliating agents in their products. Microbeads are tiny plastic particles which end up in the oceans, as they cannot be filtered from our waste waters. After, through plankton, they start to accumulate in fish and fish-eating birds (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2016/aug/24/ban-on-microbeads-tiny-objects-massive-problem-environment-cosmetics). Cosmetics is one of the major sources for microplastics that end up in the environment. In the beginning of 2017 microplastics were already detectable from table salt. Microbeads could be replaced with an alternative that doesn’t have such a huge impact to the environment. Currently, it is common to scrub one’s face with granulated sugar but for commercial exfoliation products an insoluble option should be used. We thus introduced ground peach seeds as a replacement to combat the trend of microplastics! Our end product is therefore environmentally friendly, and it is safe to discard in the trash and the sink.
Picture on left: Filters for grinding machine
Picture on left: Anderas Lindberg helping us with the grinding machine
We used natural beads made of peach pits. We grinded them to achieve the beads of different particle sizes: coarse (heavy), medium (mix) and fine. Then, we added them to hydrogel samples to get different compositions. The viscosity also impacts the sedimentation rate of exfoliating beads suspended in the hydrogel.
Package
In package design we had several potential material candidates like biodegradable wood based plastic PLL, paper and wood. We decided to go with a wooden packages because we had an idea of wood based product packaged inside wooden package. With wooden package we also represented Finnish nature which was an inspiration in whole design process. Package is made out of curly birch wood, which has beautiful structure and outlook naturally. Product name is laser engraved on top of the package and ingredient information can be engraved on bottom of the package. In actual production process wooden package is most probably too expensive, but now we wanted to focus on a show piece, an idea of no beautiful package that can be used after the product has run out. With wooden package we will also get more attention. In future the package could be PLL tube or coated paper tube which is easy to recycle or burn.
Future work
During the design process we contacted Andrzej Urlinski from Urlinski (link here to dialog). in order to reflect our product with professional manufacturer. The Urlinski company designs and manufactures the equipment for production of cosmetics and medicines. Urlinski pointed out the problematic of preservative-free biomaterial based product and it turned out to be real problem, because some of our samples got contaminated in a room temperature. Conclusion was biobased product gets contaminated too easily especially if the product is held in a room temperature and handled with pare hands. We also discussed about this problem with Andreas Lindberg and his suggestion was to store the product in fridge instead of mixing it with synthetic materials.
Pic: a,b) Degraded 3% Cekol 50000 W with medium exfoliant - cloudy liquid on top and severely c) Mold in 7% Cekol 2000 with heavy exfoliant
This is question we didn’t have time to solve in the end, but what we had in the end was really promising product prototype that benefits new synthetic biology technology and provides an alternative for heavy treatments and medicines often used for acne.
The product might not be perfect yet, but it executes perfectly its purpose in our project. Our I’m was not only to create innovative and eco-friendly product by combining together a problem, synthetic biology and product design. Another purpose of our product concept was to be able communicate about synthetic biology via it. We wanted to create a beautiful, easy to approach product concept and brand that still has strong commercial potential. We created business plan that can be found here (link to entrepreneurship)
picture
We got encouraged by the stories from people having acne and we truly believe that acne should be more studied in order to offer better products and cure for 85% of all the people having this disease at some point in their lives.
References
[1] Writers, YEAR. Name of article / book. Publication. Accessible at: [url here].
[2] Tan J.K.L, Bhate K. 2015. A global perspective on the epidemiology of acne British Journal of Dermatology at: [here].
[3] Nakano T, Yoshino T, Fujimura T, Arai S, Mukuno A, Sato N, Katsuoka K. 2015. Reduced expression of dermcidin, a peptide active against propionibacterium acnes, in sweat of patients with acne vulgaris. US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health. Accessible at: [here].
[4] Beylot C., Auffret N., Poli F., Claudel J.-P., Leccia M.-T., Del Giudice P., Dreno B. 2013. Propionibacterium acnes: an update on its role in the pathogenesis of acne Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. Accessible at:[here].
[5] Das S., Reynolds R. V. 2014. Recent Advances in Acne Pathogenesis: Implications for Therapy American Journal of Clinical Dermatology. Accessible at:[here].
