Unleashing Nature’s Potential: The Future of Sustainable Beauty with Biotechnology

In the cosmetics market, one of the growing trends is the development of biotech beauty in order to meet the constant increasing demand for more sustainable and/or natural ingredients. So what is biotechnology beauty definition and what is hidden behind this name?

Plants and microorganisms have always been known for their molecular richness, they are like small factories capable of synthesising a multitude of molecules of interest, for various purpose. Microorganisms are used in many fields, like food industry with for example the production of pigments by some microalgae or the production of enzyme. We can also give some examples in the pharmaceutical industry, with the production of antibiotics or anticancer molecules by some bacteria or fungi. Regarding the field of plant and especially the plant cell culture, since the first research in 1950 on Dalhia first virus-infected plant rescue, it has undergone great developments, especially in the recent years as this technology answers the sustainability challenges, we are all facing. The plant cell culture has shown some application in food with the production of some dietary or colouring agent but also in pharmaceutic industry, with for example the production of taxol.

In the cosmetic field, biotechnology is the perfect answer to the increased demand for natural ingredients as well as the need for more eco-friendly manufacturing processes. This technology allows to reply to major environmental, climatic and societal challenges. First, it only needs a small sampling from the ecosystems and as such contribute to their preservation. Compared to classical extraction, biotechnology allows their use, with a limited water quantity, no soil occupation and no use of pesticides nor fertilizers. Moreover, extraction process doesn’t use any solvent and requires less energy. As the manufacturing is done in a fully controlled environment, with very precise protocols it allows the identification and quantification of metabolites of interest and their reproducibility batch to batch. In summary, biotechnology allows a control of the life cycle from the raw material to the waste.

On the vegetal scope, after a first generation that allowed to obtain so-called primary molecules, i.e. molecules essential for the plant to live, in a controlled environment, the second generation made it possible to obtain, thanks to very specific stimulation protocols, molecules of interest produced by the plant in response to these stimuli. If in the first case it was essentially a matter of creating and amplifying a biomass, in the second, the research allowed the production of extracts with optimized and reproducible concentrations of molecules of interest. Now a new era is upon us with the third generation that is based on epigenetic.

With regards to micro-organisms, algae, yeast and bacteria have been widely used to produce active ingredients and new processes are currently developed to get similar successes with fungi that can be very challenging in term of industrialization, as well as the development of synthetic biology.

For all these reasons, more and more active ingredients are issued from biotechnology with a huge number of beauty benefits. It goes from seboregulation and microbiota balance to skin evenness, firming or IR damage protection and of course hydration and skin barrier repair with ceramides for example. It is also the case for functional ingredients like biosurfactant or gelling agent that can be obtained by fermentation.

And this is just the beginning! Biotechnology continues to open up the field of possibilities in the development of new eco-responsible ingredients. As mentioned above, the third generation of plant cell culture brings limitless opportunities. With an even more advanced chemical selectivity and the ability to orientate the metabolism in a more precise and specific way, it allows the production of active molecules that couldn’t be obtained with more traditional technologies. These molecules could be produced by the plant but this latter does not know it! Metabolic pathways are unlocked with precursors and/or specific stimulations, removing inhibitions that can be linked to epigenetic factors. In a few words, the blocking of DNA expression is removed, but not modified.

Another field of research for the future is synthetic biology. This ‘new’ technology makes it possible to produce molecules that could only be obtained from chemistry, using some solvents, catalysts, dangerous materials. Synthetic biology is a combination of biology, bioinformatics and engineering. The principle is to build and develop biological systems that do not exist in nature or re-built existing systems by modifying them. The concept is to use (bio)bricks that are standardised and able to be put together to fulfil a function. This pure innovation allows tailor-made bioproduction of recombinant proteins and peptides, antioxidants, pigments, UV filters, biomaterials, polysaccharides, … with new or optimised abilities. Thanks to synthetic biology some processes can be improved with regards to time saving, yields, so finally by reducing some consumptions and costs.

Biotechnology does not have visible limits for cosmetic, food and pharma as well as other applications like crop or biomaterial uses. For the cosmetic industry, once again, it offers more sustainable ingredients but also new ingredients because nature is amazing to produce some molecules that are very difficult to produce by chemistry for example. Of course, the objective is not to fully replace chemistry but to make sure to use the best technology to reduce impacts on the planet. And to achieve this goal the personal care industry can partner with specialised companies that have developed a strong know-how in biotechnology techniques or micro-organism culture. Together they can benefit from their scientific advances to develop innovative and sustainable active ingredients.