Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer, with over 80,000 cases of skin cancer in Canada annually. Sunscreen and sunx000D
protection industry is projected to reach $14.5 billion by 2020. Suncayr, a Canadian company, develops unique preventativex000D
measures to avoid the common problems associated with over-exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Suncayr is creating indicatorsx000D
(stickers) that change colour when exposed to ultraviolet light. This sticker when coated with a sunscreen will give the user thex000D
assurance as to when the sunscreen is no longer protective. The product has two functional parts, one of which is a skinmimickingx000D
film (SMF) that is designed to behave similarly to the human's skin. Upon swimming/sweating and toweling, thex000D
sunscreen should be removed from the SMF surface at a similar rate to how it is removed from the human skin. The company hasx000D
discovered that the SMF fails to mimic the sunscreen-coated human skin in salty water, which necessitates the study of thex000D
properties of chitosan/gelatin-based CMFs in ionic solutions. Understanding of the mechanism of SMF properties in the ionicx000D
environment of salty water, in comparison with fresh water, will guide the design new and improvement of existing SMFx000D
formulations and will lead to new products that will be successfully commercialized. The development of Suncayrs technologiesx000D
will also play a role in increasing Canadas competitiveness in the global sunscreen and related sun protection industry.x000D