Dermaplus, maker of Dermalastyl and Keracyte brand products, announces synthesis of human Keratin proteins.

New York -  October 7   2007   A major scientific breakthrough was announced today by the maker of the popular Dermalastyl brand anti-aging skin cream and Keracyte brand scalp conditioner. Dr Burt Ensley CEO of Dermaplus said “ Our researchers have cloned the messenger RNA sequences of the important human protein Keratin and have produced significant quantities of the protein.  This is an important scientific and commercial advance that will have a major effect on the way we care for skin and will ultimately revolutionize hair care products. 

Keratin is currently used in the formulation of hair care products to provide shine, strength, softness, smoothness, and good combing properties. The hydrolyzed Keratin in use is obtained by applying chemicals and enzymes to human and/or animal hair.  The process used destroys the original keratin structures that make up hair and as a result they are non-functional.  Dr Ensley said “The virgin material we have created will function as natural keratin in the skin.  We will be able to immediately create exciting new additions to our skin and hair care products. In the future we can use the material to create new products for both wound healing and tissue regeneration applications.” 

Dr Ensley said “ We recreated the genetic code for the important Keratin isoforms 6 and 16.  We chose these isoforms because they are most closely associated with rapid wound healing.   It is known that expression of Keratin 6 and 16 are an important step in the reformation of damaged tissues.  We believe that by introducing bio-identical proteins directly into the wounds the healing process can be accelerated.  Our desire to advance the science behind our skin care products dictated that we choose the keratins most closely associated with epithelial cells.  However, using the same methods we can create many other desirable forms of keratins.   Our research collaborators have already experienced significant improvements in tissue regeneration rates and function using Elastatropin, our synthetic Tropoelastin.  We expect similar improvements as a result of our introduction of our synthetic Keratin, branded as Keratropin.”

About Dermalastyl

Dermalastyl  is the first skin care line to include a complete functional human protein produced by genetic engineering as an ingredient.  Dermaplus manufactures and sells over-the-counter consumer products made with the sophisticated, high performance biopolymers licensed from its parent Matrix Design, www.mtrxdsgn.com.  Its current product line includes Dermalastyl anti-aging skin care and Keracyte anti-aging scalp conditioner.  Keracyte and Dermalastyl are not available in stores.

Media Contact:

Lorenzo DeLuca