When you're a teenager -- and beyond -- zits can kill your social life, but scientists at UC Santa Barbara have devised what may be a high-tech way to destroy them.
UCSB has teamed with up Sebacia, a creator of medical devices, to use nanotechnology to deliver "heated" particles directly to an acne-affected region via ultrasound. The heat element "melts" the sebaceous glad excretion that typically blocks a follicle, causing the acne build-up, according to Futurity. The targeting process is known as "selective photothermolysis."
"The unique thing about these particles is that when you shine a laser on them, they efficiently convert light into heat via a process called surface plasmon resonance," says Samir Mitragotri, professor of chemical engineering at UCSB.
Any zit-zapping product that works would win over a continually growing market, as high school-aged and older people all want to eliminate acne, along with the stigma that accompanies affliction. The market is virtually endless as long as there are teenagers, who are the main consumer of anti-acne products.
The stigma of having acne has forever created feelings of self-conciousness and low self-esteem, and is also a driving factor in why people buy acne products, according to several reports,
For Proactiv, marketers were smart when they got Adam Levine, the front man for Maroon 5, as the spokesman for acne products, as covered in industry magazines.
Proactiv, which is using Levine in its multi-million-dollar campaign, has also put kiosks in malls like Westfield Century City in an attempt to attract the after-school crowd. The brand is valued at $850 million, The New York Times reported.
The photothermolysis technique is the first application that uses ultrasound to deliver the particles into humans, the release says. The particles are about a hundredth of the width of a human hair, but they are affective in their tasks.
The long-term results -- and potential side effects -- of the nanotech-based, zit-zapping technique are not yet known. While the high-tech process is more suited for severe cases, there is no quick answer to the centuries-old plague of acne.
The researchers published their work in the Journal of Controlled Release.
