The Australian Photobiology Testing Facility Pty. Limited (APTF) was opened in March 1989 by the Chancellor of the University of Sydney, the late Sir Hermann Black.

The APTF services the national and multinational cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry mainly in Australia. New Zealand, Fiji, UK, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Netherlands, Holland, France, Belgium, Norway, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, and Germany. The APTF tests cosmetics and pharmaceuticals on human skin for purposes of claim substantiation and toxicological requirements. As its name suggests, the APTF specialises in the effects of light, or electromagnetic energy (including ultraviolet and infra red), on skin, and in the evaluation of all types of material, including sunscreens and clothing, designed to protect the skin from the damaging effects of sunlight exposure.

The APTF was founded on the University of Sydney campus by its Managing and Scientific Director, Gavin Greenoak, who also initiated the ongoing and growing research interests in the biological effects of sunlight, especially skin cancer, at the University of Sydney. The APTF has funded research programmes examining factors influencing the skin cancer outcome and its prevention, including sunscreens, genetic, dietary, and hormonal influences.

Mr Gavin E. Greenoak has twenty five years of cancer research experience and twenty one of these in the field of skin cancer. He worked formerly at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London before joining the Department of Veterinary Pathology in 1980 and from there to the Department of Animal Science where he is an Honorary Research Associate. Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council to the end of 1989, he has been funded by the Leo and Jenny Leukaemia and Cancer Foundation of Australia and the Sydney University Cancer Research Fund to investigate genetic factors of skin cancer and has been recently supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) to continue studies in genetic factors influencing skin cancer, and to complete his Doctorate.

Mr Greenoak has Diplomas in Light Microscopy and in Solar Simulation and is a member of the Mutagenesis and Experimental Pathology Society of Australasia; the American Society of Photobiology; the Australian Society of Cosmetic Chemists (Technical Committee), and the Standards Australia Sunscreen and Sun Protective Clothing Committees. He has published widely in International Journals, mainly on influences affecting skin carcinogenesis. Mr Greenoak is also a Director of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Research Institute (MASCRI). MASCRI represents interests of the Melanoma Foundation and the Dermatology Research Foundation at the University of Sydney and is the first institute of its kind in the world dedicated to skin cancer research.

Golda Gruszka is the Technical Manager of the APTF with many years experience in the field of testing on human skin.

Professor Ross Barnetson who holds the Chair of Dermatology at the University of Sydney is a Consultant dermatologist to the APTF.

All test procedures undertaken by the APTF conform to the N.H. & M.R.C. Guidelines for Human Experimentation, the Guidelines for Good Clinical Research Practice (GCRP) in Australia and have been approved by the University of Sydney Medical Ethics Review Committee.

Quality Assurance Standards Australia has assessed the APTF and approved it as a recognised laboratory for type testing, quality assurance purposes.