PCA SKIN, a Colgate-Palmolive Company, announced plans to send the first-ever private sector skin health experiment to the International Space Station (ISS).

The experiment, sponsored by the ISS National Lab, will explore the effects of microgravity on skin-related genes as the biomarkers used to evaluate overall skin health in an effort to guide future product innovations and technologies. 

The experiment will travel to the ISS aboard Northrop Grumman’s 17th commercial resupply services mission, contracted by NASA, in its Cygnus spacecraft no earlier than February 19, 2022 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Lia Arvanitidou, Global Technology and Design Vice President for Colgate-Palmolive’s skin health businesses, comments:

“We know from historical data that space travel and lengthy exposure to microgravity have profound effects on the skin. Astronauts in space experience thinning, dry skin that is susceptible to cuts. While these changes are comparable to those observed during the normal aging process on Earth, it appears that they are accelerated in microgravity.”

Arvanitidou continues, “Through this exciting endeavor, we’ll be able to gather new data on the skin health biomarkers behind those changes – data which will be available faster than it would be on Earth,” said Arvanitidou.

For 30 years, PCA SKIN has pioneered and perfected the science of skin health to improve people’s lives. Developing transformative solutions backed by science is an important part of the brand’s mission and vision, which support Colgate-Palmolive’s purpose to reimagine a healthier future for all.

With this experiment, the brand hopes to find ways to better identify areas for early intervention in skin health and, ultimately, help guide the development of groundbreaking skincare innovations across all of C-P’s skincare brands – PCA SKIN®, EltaMD, and Filorga.

Conducting the Experiment on the ISS

To conduct the experiment on the ISS, Colgate-Palmolive scientists partnered with BioServe Space Technologies, an ISS National Lab implementation partner that specializes in engineering space-based life science investigations to develop a custom device, containing live, lab-grown skin samples from MatTek Life Sciences.

The samples will be exposed to the microgravity environment aboard the ISS for a set number of days and then frozen until they are returned to Earth. Once the samples return to our lab, investigators will compare findings to those observed in matching control experiments conducted on the ground.

The experiment is Colgate-Palmolive’s second research project to be conducted in collaboration with the ISS National Lab. “We are committed to exploring new pathways to innovation that help our customers feel their best. We are confident that our collaboration with the ISS National Lab will give us valuable insights to inform our work as a result-driven, professional-grade skincare company deeply rooted in science and skin health,” said Arvanitidou.