Discovered by accident in a University of Guelph laboratory back in 2008, a super moist nanoparticle that is part of the corn plant will soon be an active ingredient in moisturizers and cosmetics.
A new Guelph spin-off company could do very well for itself marketing material containing the tiny particle.
A nanoparticle is an extremely small, microscopic particle range from 1 to 2,500 nanometers in size. A single nanometer is one billionth of a meter.
John Dutcher, a U of G physics professor and Canada Research Chair in Soft Matter and Biological Physics, discovered the so-called “water magnet” particle with his research team at the university. In a telephone interview on Monday he said he is excited by the potential of the discovery.
Much preliminary testing has taken place by using the nanoparticle in the making test cosmetic creams. Everyone that tried the moisturizers containing the super-moist particle say it works better than other products they have tried. Dutcher has tried it himself, and said it sends a revitalizing tingle through the skin.
“It just has a better feel,” he said. “People put it on their skin and they say, ‘This feels good.’ They like it and would like to get more.”
The beauty of the nanoparticle is that it holds moisture, and delivers a continual level of it regardless of how wet or dry the environment is.
“This is a perfect example of nanotechnology from nature,” Dutcher said. “This is something that is completely natural. It’s produced in the kernels of sweet corn.”
Through the use of highly sophisticated equipment and techniques available at the university, Dutcher and his researchers found the particle, were able to extract and purify it, and study its properties.
“And it turns out it’s got phenomenal properties,” he said, adding that any corn eater would have consumed the particle countless times.
He explained that the nanoparticle contains an extraordinary number of balls of sugars. Bonded together and uniform in size, they hold and interact is special ways with water, making it ideally suited as a moisturizer. About 1,000 of nanoparticles lined up would span the width of a human hair.
What was discovered in the lab has been spun off into a small Guelph-based company call Mirexus, where the commercialization of the nanoparticle discovery is taking place. The Southgate Drive operation employs 15 people.
A large investment in the company last year allowed it to set up to market the “water magnet” to cosmetic companies around the world. Three natural cosmetic companies are now buying Mirexus material to use in products that will be launched this year in products like anti-aging creams.
“It’s really fun to see something come out of the research lab and go out into the marketplace,” Dutcher added. “It’s a wonderful experience.”
He said one of Mirexus’ investors, a multinational cosmetics company based in Japan, conducted its own tests on the nanoparticle and found that it performed better than anything previously tried.
“The trick is to look towards nature and see what it does in very special ways,” he said. “We kind of lucked into this. We weren’t looking for a special particle like this. It was discovered in my lab by accident. A classic case of serendipity.”
Dutcher and his team were assisted in their research by scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Funding for the research was provided by the University’s partnership agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.