is the cosmetics industry about to get a
makeover
for centuries it has exploited natural
resources by extracting ingredients from
animals and
plants you were to turn over
one of the bottles that are probably in
your bathroom eight out of ten of each
of the ingredients would be sourced
through unsustainable methods
but with consumers now demanding more
sustainable and ethical products
i'll be sharing those brands that are
truly truly truly cruelty free
could gene editing technology help the
industry to clean up its act
we're going to be able to produce
molecules that are better for the
environment than getting them from their
natural source
and could this ultimately make cosmetics
cheaper
sharks
at the top of the marine food chain they
have few natural predators
except humans
who have hunted them for the plentiful
supply of an oil they produce in rich
quantities called squalene
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squalene which is commonly turned into a
chemical called squalane
is a key ingredient in skin care
products squalane is
a chemical that has been used in the
cosmetics industry for decades
if you used a sunscreen or if you used a
moisturizer chances are pretty good that
that product contains squalane
there are no official figures for how
many sharks have been killed annually in
order to harvest their precious oil
but it's believed to be in the millions
but one company has found a way to
reduce this degradation of the oceans
and it says this is a game changer for
the whole industry
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let's assume that there's about 10 grams
per liter
of
squalene being produced at this very
moment
sunil chandran is a scientist at
californian biotech company amorous
amorous says it now supplies the
majority of the world's square lane
all of it made in a lab
without any shark involvement
worldwide there's anywhere from you know
2500 to 4000 metric tons of squalene
that's reduced today using the amorous
technology we are right now supplying a
little more than 2000 metric tons
and they're doing it with the latest in
gene editing technology using a field of
science called synthetic biology
cosmetics brands have often used science
to promote their products
here comes the science bit concentrate
and in this case the science is
impressive
take the shark which produces squalene
in its liver using special proteins
called enzymes
scientists are able to identify which of
the shark's genes are responsible for
producing those enzymes
using the latest gene editing technology
they take a microbe which is a tiny
organism with the ability to
self-replicate
and break open its genome
scientists insert the genetic code of
the enzymes into the microbe which is
often yeast
the yeast is placed in a fermentation
vat and fed with sugar and other
ingredients to fuel cell division and
produce squalene
or another molecule called pharmacine
sugar is used as the main energy source
to fuel this reaction and the process
has less environmental impact on the
natural world than hunting sharks
we can actually replace
the production of all the squalene in
the world we can replace three million
sharks that are killed by using sugar
cane that's grown on one square
kilometer of land that's it
since 2011
amorous has been selling square lane to
some of the biggest cosmetics companies
in the world as well as in their own
luxury brand biosance
squalone has become an increasingly
popular and well-known ingredient in
skincare today endorsed by celebrities
and influencers alike my favorite
squalane omega repair moisturizer
squalene is just one of many ingredients
used in the cosmetics industry which are
extracted from animals
face masks using collagen from cows
shampoos using keratin sourced from
sheep
eye shadow colours from farmed crushed
beetles
consumers increasingly say they don't
want animal derived products
in the last
decade or so consumers have started
becoming more aware
of where
the ingredients in the cosmetics are
being sourced from and they are starting
to demand
that
their products be
animal
free be ethically sourced be sustainable
gene editing technology has the
potential to replace all of these
animal-derived ingredients
some brands have moved away from animal
sourcing and replaced ingredients such
as fats with alternatives made from
petrochemicals
but many consumers don't like this
either and are looking for so-called
natural alternatives
naturally i am using cruelty-free and
vegan products aloe vera organic sesame
seed oil avocado it means there's more
pressure to find plant-based
alternatives
and that brings more environmental
problems
take rose oil which is used in perfumes
it takes around 200 000 petals to make
five milliliters
and so that's not only a significant
volume of roses that need to be grown
but think about the land usage and the
water usage that comes along with it
which has become increasingly
problematic with the changing climate
that's not the only problem in
harvesting plants
trees cut down for their perfumed wood
are facing extinction
wild flowers are at risk and most modern
cosmetics contain palm oil which is a
major driver of deforestation
i think people think about plants as a
very nature-friendly way of making uh
ingredients but actually that's turning
out not to be the case
so could gene editing technology help to
reduce the cosmetic industry's
dependence on plants as well as animals
yes say some scientists who argue that
synthesizing ingredients currently made
from plant ingredients will make the
industry more sustainable and
environmentally responsible what we see
is the cosmetic industry is growing
pretty substantially
and
that means that we need to have
environmentally friendly sources for
these molecules and biosynthesis is an
environmentally friendly way to derive
many of these molecules
instead of growing for example roses on
a significant plot of land that requires
a lot of energy to maintain and a lot of
water
what you can do is you can design a
microbe that can effectively produce
that same type of material without the
carbon footprint without needing that
much land without needing that much
water and without needing that much
energy
but are these claims to reduce
dependence on plants and animals
something of a good marketing story for
the cosmetics industry
which causes more environmental damage
in other ways
120 billion units of single-use
packaging are created by the cosmetics
industry every year almost nine in ten
products from major brands contain micro
plastics
here again some biotech companies say
technology could be the answer
by engineering microbes which can break
down plastics
every waste product that is out there
there is a microbe that uses that as a
food source so it is really interesting
to think about designing microbes or
finding microbes that can help us break
down plastics and also not be causing
harmful effects in our environment
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of the total ingredients used in the
global cosmetics market it's estimated
around 10 percent are produced from
gene-edited microbes
but could that figure increase
here in the lab of biotech company
ginkgo jason kelly's team have signed
multi-million dollar deals with some of
the world's leading fragrance companies
to develop perfumes from gene-edited
microbes
what you're looking at here is
each one of those
little jars is a small
brewery it's a little what we call a
fermenter
but think of it like a very small
brewery
but despite interest from big brands the
multi-billion dollar question is will
perfumes made using gene editing become
the norm in beauty isles
that may depend on whether scientists
can design microbes to produce large
enough quantities of the required
ingredient
once you've got a strain and you've put
the dna in to have it make one of these
products you're not actually done right
what you need to do is then figure out
the best way to grow it
scientists must tinker with the microbes
metabolism and its newly inserted dna to
see how efficiently it's producing the
desired molecules
it's a process that can take months or
even years
but it's become quicker and more
commercially viable as gene editing
technology has become more affordable
so i know it's loud in here uh but
that's the sound of dna being red on a
machine like one of these dna sequencers
we can actually
look at the genomes of thousands of
bacterial cells in one single run it's
really incredible like if you look at
how this technology has improved over
the last 10 years it's almost a
million-fold cost reduction in reading
dna
currently it can take between six months
to three years to find the right
combination of conditions for the
microbes to flourish
but the low cost of sequencing enables
companies like jason's to keep trying
new versions
and this low cost means savings could be
passed on to the brands
if we're replacing an ingredient like
you currently extract a molecule from a
plant for example for a fragrance or
something like that you know often a
customer would be trying to see
something like a 50
lower cost of goods by production via
fermentation compared to the old process
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and there is another reason why gene
edited products may become more
prevalent and commercially viable in the
cosmetics world
light touch regulation
unlike industries such as
pharmaceuticals regulations in america
for cosmetics allow scientists
comparative freedom to experiment with
gene-edited ingredients i think that the
cosmetics sit in kind of a sweet spot
where the regulatory risk is lower than
for pharmaceuticals
and the value of the molecule is higher
than it is say for commodity chemicals
like plastics
or biofuels
and in the eu which has some of the
strictest laws around genetically
modified products
cosmetics companies can take advantage
of a distinction regulators see as
crucial
the organism that is designed that is
modified is used to make the ingredient
but the ingredient itself is not what is
referred to as genetically modified so
an ingredient that is produced through a
genetically modified organism might be
nature identical and effectively
impossible to differentiate it might
even be safer than traditional
plant-based or animal-based sourcing
methods
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it looks like synthetic biology could be
good news for the cosmetics industry
but cosmetics might also be a lifesaver
for the synthetic biology industry
in 2021 companies in this sector saw
their value crash as they struggled to
find a market for their technologies in
areas such as biofuels
and what also excites some scientists in
this field is the possibility of
sourcing previously inaccessible
molecules
and creating brand new products
i think the future is very bright for
this technology
i think that we're going to be able to
produce nearly every molecule in
cosmetics
using this technology and not only that
we're going to have molecules that you
can't currently get in cosmetics
what will be possible once we start
tapping into other natural molecules
that we haven't even been able to play
with yet
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i'm alex science correspondent at the
economist to read more on this topic
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