Biotech startup SinFlora presented an attractive proposal for a new type of skin treatment technology to 4YFN at the MWC show in Barcelona this week. The Spanish startup, whose three co-founders have PhDs, is working to improve understanding of the skin microbiome and engineer skin microbes with the goal of enabling more specific and novel therapies.
The basic idea is to offer treatments in a deeper way than topically applied creams, as is the case with the current generation “active” skin care products, but also to design and engineer a broader range of treatments using the use of biotechnological methods to harness bacteria to deliver targeted therapies.
“We are creating the basis of a new skin product that is no longer just molecules that can't enter the skin because they are applied topically; it is really like a molecular machine,” says co-founder and CEO Nastassia Knōdlseder. “A bacteria that can move inside the hair follicle, deep in the skin, and produce new (effects).”
The team's initial research “proof of concept” work focuses on acne and they recently published a paper about their experimental treatment delivery approach in the journal Nature Biotechnology (about a test of a “sebum modulator” in an engineered skin microbe in mice), but they envision the approach being applied to address a much broader range of problems . Including things that go far beyond what we could consider skin care.
Possible use cases they mention could include mosquito repellent or fat loss (cellulite-removing cream, anyone?), according to Knōdlseder, or even vaccines and anti-inflammatory treatments.
“We have the potential to activate the immune system or create vaccines against melanoma, for example,” he suggests. “We have the possibility of producing anti-inflammatory molecules.”
“We really see this as a platform,” he adds, confirming that the team has patents for different uses of the technology and for the platform itself. “We really don't want to limit ourselves to just one use case.”
SynFlora is still in an early stage (they are in the process of raising a seed round, according to Knōdlseder) and will obviously need to satisfy regulators about the safety and effectiveness of their novel bioengineered mechanism to deliver therapies deeper into the dermis before that technology will be able to reach consumers.
But the co-founders suggest their novel system could be one to three years away from powering a new generation of therapies delivered through the skin.