A new material that can be applied as an imperceptible layer to protect and tighten the skin has been developed by scientists in the US.

With the ability to provide an anti-aging appearance, hydrate the skin, deliver drugs and even protect against UV rays, the material could be a major hit in the beauty industry, and a valuable resource for medical applications.

“It’s an invisible layer that can provide a barrier, provide cosmetic improvement and potentially deliver a drug locally to the area that’s being treated,” said study co-author Daniel Anderson, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering associate professor and member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES). “Those three things together could really make it ideal for use in humans.”

The scientists, who, in addition to MIT, span Massachusetts General Hospital, Living Proof and Olivo Labs, have been developing the material for the past 10 years, having targeted the creation of a protective coating for skin.

“We started thinking about how we might be able to control the properties of skin by coating it with polymers that would impart beneficial effects,” said Anderson. “We also wanted it to be invisible and comfortable.”

This involved the creation of a vast library of polymers – over 100 in total – containing the chemical structure siloxane, which consist of an alternating chain of silicon and oxygen atoms. This structure was important, as it allowed the polymers to be assembled into a cross-linked polymer layer, where atom chains are arranged in connected networks.

The idea of all this was to find a material that could appropriately mimic healthy skin’s appearance, elasticity and strength.

“It has to have the right optical properties, otherwise it won’t look good, and it has to have the right mechanical properties, otherwise it won’t have the right strength and it won’t perform correctly,” said study senior author Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute professor at MIT, and a member of the Koch Institute.

The research, which is published today in the journal Nature Materials, is a significant breakthrough for the cosmetics and medical industries, as the resulting material has better elastic properties than the current standards for wound dressing: silicone gel sheets and polyurethane films.

It can return to its natural state after being stretched by more than 250%, beating real skin’s own elasticity levels of 180%, as has been shown in studies to improve eye bag appearance, boost hydration and improve skin elasticity.

“Creating a material that behaves like skin is very difficult,” said study co-author Barbara Gilchrest, a Massachusetts General Hospital dermatologist. “Many people have tried to do this, and the materials that have been available up until this have not had the properties of being flexible, comfortable, non-irritating, and able to conform to the movement of the skin and return to its original shape.”

The material, which is applied in the form of two ointments, is now being developed for medical and commercial applications through a new startup, Olivo Laboratories.