Chris Kiple can still hear his mother telling him to wear sunscreen and avoid the sun. He listened. These days, he uses sunscreen, wears long sleeves and spends much of his day indoors. When he began examining research into sunlight’s possible health effects, he asked: How do you seek a potential benefit without taking on unnecessary risk?
Today, Kiple is the CEO of Solius Labs, the medical technology company behind Solius Pro. Launched in June 2026, the light panel measures a user’s skin tone and calculates a personalized dose of ultraviolet B, or UVB, the part of sunlight that prompts the skin to make vitamin D. The device is designed for home or professional use, with sessions the company says typically take about five minutes once a week. The Food and Drug Administration has cleared it for over-the-counter use to stimulate vitamin D production in adults 22 and older.
Getting the exposure right has occupied Solius for roughly a decade. Ultraviolet light can burn skin and increase skin cancer risk, a concern Kiple shared with the people developing the panel.
“I saw the science, I saw the benefits, but I couldn’t quite make that leap myself of wanting to go spend hours out in the sunlight,” he told Joe Vennare on the Fitt Insider podcast. “So, I knew just for me to use the device, I was really going to have to focus on safety.”
Although Kiple leads Solius, he quickly credits the people behind its technology. He joined the company as CEO in 2023 after leading Ventec Life Systems, whose team scaled ventilator production with General Motors during the COVID-19 pandemic. At Solius, he points to engineers, dermatologists, medical advisers and researchers.
“I have an amazing team that I’m a part of, and I’m so proud of the technology they’ve helped innovate,” he said. Their common challenge, he explained, is familiar to anyone who has weighed the pleasures of sunshine against its risks: “Sunlight is tremendously important but it also carries risk. So, it’s always been a challenge of dosing.”
Christopher Kiple Says The Team’s Hardest Question Was How Much UVB Each Person Should Receive
Dermatologists have prescribed UVB phototherapy for certain skin conditions for decades. Solius wanted measured exposure without asking users to judge a safe dose by eye. Skin types respond differently; an amount suitable for one person may be too much for another.
Solius Pro starts with an optical sensor that measures skin and a question about the user’s skin history. Its software calculates an initial exposure below the level expected to produce visible redness. An app checks protective eyewear, monitors the person’s distance from the panel, records skin responses and adjusts subsequent doses. It also prevents sessions from occurring too close together.
“All you have to do with Solius is stand next to it,” Kiple said, describing the device during the interview. “That is a skin sensor that automatically scans your skin and we calculate a safe dose of UV light specific to your skin.”
He called that measurement the technology’s “secret sauce,” then explained why it matters: “UVB light is this incredibly powerful wavelength of light. ... The question is always, how do you dose it specific to you because we all respond to the sunlight differently.”
Kiple said dermatologists helped design safeguards, while medical advisers and clinical collaborators tested the team’s assumptions. “We took a huge component of our design and technology and focused it around safety,” he said. “That was our fundamental goal.”
The team also had to demonstrate performance to regulators. “We took that to the FDA and the FDA wanted true RCT clinical data,” Kiple said, referring to randomized controlled trials. “We went out and did true studies to show the efficacy with treatment and control groups. We went out and did safety studies to show the safety of this device.” He described the process as more difficult than the regulatory work he had experienced with some life-support technologies.
The FDA cleared Solius Pro under a new product code in January 2026, and Solius launched it in June. The company describes it as the first personalized over-the-counter UVB panel and estimates 99% less total UV risk than natural sunlight. That figure is the company’s comparison, not a demonstrated reduction in a user’s lifetime skin cancer risk.
The Clinical Result Is Vitamin D; The Wider Sunlight Story Remains Open
A published randomized trial of 69 participants found that the group receiving Solius UVB treatment had an average rise of 10.2 nanograms per milliliter in vitamin D levels over 21 weeks. The control group’s average level fell by 2.3. There were no serious adverse events, though 52% of participants reported minor effects, including redness or itching. A separate study submitted to the FDA tested an initial personalized dose in 27 people across skin types; none reported redness, swelling or other adverse skin reactions after that first session.
Kiple stresses that controlled exposure still involves exposure. “When I say no risk, there is some risk and I do want to emphasize that,” he said. “When you use UV light, there is some risk.”
The vitamin D finding is one result the team can measure. Kiple is interested in a much broader body of research on sunlight. In the podcast, he discussed possible effects involving nitric oxide, cardiovascular function, mood and the microbiome. “Vitamin D is a piece of the story,” he said. Those subjects present questions for future research on Solius Pro, not proven outcomes of using the panel.
He also described a Swedish study of nearly 30,000 women followed for roughly 20 years. Researchers associated greater sun exposure with longer life expectancy, while finding increased skin cancer risk. Depending on the comparison, estimated life expectancy differed by 0.6 to 2.1 years. Kiple recognized the challenge of interpreting those findings: “There’s a lot of confounding variables with that,” he said, naming factors such as exercise, weight and wealth. An observational study of time spent in the sun cannot establish that a UVB device makes people live longer.
Solius Pro’s FDA clearance is specific to stimulating vitamin D production. It does not cover treating psoriasis, depression or cardiovascular disease, though Kiple described his team’s interest in studying additional possibilities. Separating what is known from what needs testing is essential to the medical rigor he says Solius wants to bring to light therapy.
Kiple Says The Next Phase Begins With Listening To The People Using It
Solius is moving into doctors’ offices while pursuing placements in longevity clinics, senior living facilities, gyms and spas. The panel is also available for home use. Those settings bring different questions: how it fits alongside a physician’s care, whether someone can use it comfortably and whether its safeguards make sense in daily life.
“The number one thing I think you can do when you launch a product is to listen to the people using the product, what they like and what they don’t like,” Kiple explained. “I want to understand these changes and I want to hear the good. But at the same time, I want to hear the bad.”
Some early users have told him about changes in their skin or health markers. Chris Kiple wants the team to learn from those accounts, though an individual experience cannot establish that the panel caused a change. He said research partners, including the U.S. Navy and Army, are exploring possible uses where access to sunlight is limited. Dermatologists, other physicians and Solius’ scientific advisers continue to raise questions about safety and future studies.
Kiple said the team is developing additional devices and refining its skin sensor. One possibility he raised is a future feature that might alert someone to a skin change and connect that person with a dermatologist. He described an idea for further development, not a diagnostic function Solius Pro offers today.
“We are actively building new devices, and we are actively evolving our skin sensor to be able to do even more,” he said. The product now reaching homes and health care settings is the result of years of shared work. What Solius builds next will depend on what researchers can establish and what physicians and users tell the team.
“I’m not here to say we have all the answers,” Kiple said, “but I am here to say there’s a lot of science behind the data on the importance of this, and I just encourage everyone to start their own curiosity, and really learn what works for them.”