SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY


Is SynBio the answer to personal care prayers?


Tatiana Sergeenko, Eris Duro - Sagentia Innovation


Now is a time of both great opportunity and challenge for the personal care industry. On the one hand the sector is booming, with compound annual growth of 5.3% forecast globally during the 2022 to 2026 period.1 However, today’s consumers have high expectations of personal care products, and they are holding manufacturers to account. An article in Forbes identifies sustainable


and bio-based products as one of the fastest growing areas of personal care.2


This is partly


due to increased consumer awareness of the impact buying choices have on the environment. Additional drivers range from the activity of environmental NGOs to governments’ sustainability initiatives and legislative measures. A cocktail of social, economic, and


environmental factors is leading corporates and SMEs in the sector to look at ‘cleaner’ formulations. Consequently, attention is turning to technical innovations, such as biotech- produced alternatives to traditional ingredients. One area touted as holding answers to the


complex and escalating demands facing the sector is synthetic biology (SynBio). Yet what exactly is it and where do the commercial opportunities lie? It is important for personal care product manufacturers with an interest in SynBio to assess it objectively. Those that get it right could unlock new possibilities for responsible and effective products that capture consumer attention and loyalty.


Consumers want performance, ethics and more Achieving differentiation remains an important goal for personal care brands. Consumers are attracted to interesting ingredients, new functional benefits, and personalised products. However, they are increasingly concerned about issues like toxicity too. Some ingredients – including sodium lauryl sulfate, synthetic colours, and phthalates – which play an important role in many haircare and skincare products, are under scrutiny. Alongside this, ethical matters are beginning


to shape the personal care agenda. These range from demand for animal-free products to wider sustainability issues that have implications for the entire product lifecycle. In an opinion piece for biotech publication


Labiotech, ERS Genomics’ Jon Kratochvil points out that traditionally the industry ‘relies on ingredients that are unsustainable and cause harm to plant and animal life. Some products


www.personalcaremagazine.com


are sourced from animals directly and many others cause harm indirectly by persisting and accumulating in the environment’.3 There are no simple solutions to these


challenges. While some animal-based active ingredients can be replaced with petrochemical-derived alternatives, a growing number of consumers are not keen, preferring all-natural ingredients. Yet there are issues with plant-based


alternatives too. Take squalene, traditionally derived from shark liver oil, and used to improve the spread and absorption of creams and lotions. The compound can also be obtained from plants but producing it this way is more expensive because plant-based sources generate significantly lower yields. Furthermore, the production of plant-based ingredients brings its own environmental costs, as well as issues with supply-chain security. Put simply, it is becoming increasingly


difficult to satisfy today’s consumers with yesterday’s ingredients and production methods. It is easy to see why the interest in SynBio options for personal care is so intense.


What does SynBio offer? SynBio is a diverse branch of science encompassing various technologies, from


genetic and metabolic engineering to machine learning, big data techniques and biotech manufacturing. In personal care, it is increasingly used as a tool for producing cosmetic ingredients, including functional active ingredients, bio-surfactants, colourants, flavours and fragrances.


This includes the production of secondary


plant and animal metabolites through processes such as fermentation and cell culture, as well as the creation of alternative versions of ingredients with superior characteristics. SynBio can also be used to produce alternative packaging materials. Yet the possibilities do not end there.


Some areas of SynBio have the potential to unlock new developments in sensing and diagnostics, which could pave the way for more sophisticated personalisation strategies. Of the many exciting and versatile


SynBio tools available, some have become synonymous with innovation. A recent film published by The Economist, Could cosmetics get a makeover?,4


claims that following


centuries of natural resource exploitation, genetic engineering with gene editing could help the industry meet demands for sustainably sourced products in a cost-effective way. This is an interesting long-term prospect,


but it would be unrealistic to expect a single tool to resolve all the industry’s challenges in one swoop. It makes more sense to look at gene editing within the broader context of synthetic biology to identify benefits that might be harnessed for the sector.


Technical developments Recent years have seen accelerated developments in the tools that are fundamental to synthetic biology: DNA synthesis and sequencing, genetic engineering - with gene editing, especially CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) - ‘omics’ technologies, data analytics, and machine learning have become more powerful and cost-effective. This allows for faster and more sophisticated metabolic engineering, which has forced a shift in the biotech market. Gene sequencing and genomics offer ways


to understand biological pathways that may be used or modified. Closely linked to this is the field of genetic engineering which encompasses gene editing techniques, including CRISPR. So, what does gene editing offer? Primarily, it allows for more subtle, versatile, and efficient


October 2023 PERSONAL CARE


79


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108