• The Cincinnati Enquirer, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 12:15 PM

Scientists from Procter & Gamble's beauty division have identified all 4,285 genes of the fungus--Malassezia globosa--that causes dandruff. The research has wide-ranging implications for P&G, whose Head & Shoulders brand is one of the leading dandruff shampoos on the market, with more than $1 billion in annual sales.

"We could target our products more carefully against Malassezia," says Dianna Kenneally, principal scientist at P&G Beauty Co. For the past few decades, pyrithione zinc--the active ingredient in Head & Shoulders and other treatments--has been the usual plan of attack. But Thomas Dawson Jr., a scalp and hair follicle expert at P&G, says those 4,285 mapped genes represent 4,285 potential new plans of attack--and possibly new products--for treating the fungus.

Dawson, principal author of a study on the findings of the dandruff research published in Monday's online edition of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," says: "It wasn't fair for us to keep this secret, as members of the broader scientific community."

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