This is an interesting story since it was put out by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. I can’t find this iSOY Technology Corporation online anywhere though. It’s nice that they’ve made this announcement but it leaves you with very little information and in my quick search I couldn’t find much either.
SoyScreen, a biodegradable sunscreen derived from soybean oil, could be a step closer to becoming a commercial product for health-conscious consumers. On October 3rd, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) granted an exclusive license on the patented sunscreen technology (US no. 6,346,236) to iSOY Technology Corporation of Cary, Illinois. The license stems from a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) in which iSOY is working with ARS chemists Joe Laszlo and Dave Compton to scale up production of SoyScreen, as well as create variations of it having different properties.
They developed SoyScreen at the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Ill., where 100 full-time scientists explore innovative new ways to create value-added products from U.S. crops, particularly corn and soybeans.
In SoyScreen, they envision a skin- and hair-care product that could expand the market for U.S. soy oil. Of the 17.6 billion pounds consumed domestically, 628 million pounds of soy oil is used for industrial purposes, according to the American Soybean Association’s Soy Stats page.