Technology
Outer Biosciences uses preserved living human skin to train AI for skincare discovery
The startup maintains discarded surgical tissue for up to a month to evaluate compounds and identify prospective cosmetic ingredients.
The short version
- Outer Biosciences, co-founded by CEO Michael Polansky in 2022, revealed its platform for sustaining discarded human surgical skin outside the body for up to a month.
- Experimental data from the living tissue is used to train an AI model designed to predict and discover new cosmetic ingredients, yielding a new candidate roughly every six weeks.
- The 19-person startup plans to license or sell discovered ingredients to beauty and pharmaceutical companies rather than marketing its own consumer brand.
- It remains unconfirmed whether any of the startup's current leads will secure commercial deals or successfully pass international safety evaluations.
Key facts
- Outer Biosciences was co-founded in 2022 by CEO Michael Polansky, chief scientist Kyung-Jin Jang, CTO Chris Hinojosa, and chief business officer Stanley King.[TechCrunch]
- The company has raised approximately $23 million from investors including Wing Ventures, Initialized, and Polansky's investment firm Hawktail.[TechCrunch]
- Outer Biosciences sources de-identified discarded surgical skin tissue through non-profit and commercial biobanks, including the National Disease Research Interchange and the Cooperative Human Tissue Network.[TechCrunch]
- The startup's proprietary nutrient and waste-clearing system maintains living skin tissue for up to 30 days to observe longer-term biological processes like barrier repair and responses to UVB damage.[TechCrunch]
- Outer Biosciences has six active leads in its discovery pipeline and plans to license or sell ingredients to third-party beauty and pharmaceutical brands.[TechCrunch]
What remains uncertain
- Whether Outer Biosciences is currently raising additional venture capital remains undisclosed by its leadership.[TechCrunch]
- The timeline and success rate for the startup's four prospective commercial leads to complete OECD-standardized safety testing and secure commercialization partners are unverified.[TechCrunch]