Searching for beauty under the sea

Marine prospection has been traditionally hampered by the high cost and technical difficulties associated with access to the most valuable resources, but a strong surge of marine-derived cosmetic ingredients offered by ingredient providers and top brand cosmetics suggest that the trend has changed. However, prospection difficulties have had a strong impact in the exploitation of all the potential of marine biotechnology in different sectors, being a clear example of the difference between natural products of terrestrial origin in use in the clinic or undergoing clinical trials, and those of marine origin. Despite this gap, biological and chemical diversity in the oceans is greater than that of terrestrial ecosystems, making the sea an optimum source of new active ingredients for different industrial applications,1–5 from the pharmaceutical sector to the development of active food ingredients, and, of course, cosmetics. We associate the concept of marine biodiversity with a coral reef, teeming with different species of invertebrates, algae and fish, but the majority of diversity found in the sea belongs to the microorganisms. While most bacteria living in the oceans belong to alphaproteobacteria and cyanobacteria, their use for production of cosmetic ingredients is limited by the reduced biomass and secondary metabolism that they have in comparison with actinobacteria or fungi. In any case, the focus of the cosmetic industry in the microbiota of the sea as a source of novel ingredients is already yielding interesting results in a wide variety of applications. This interest is behind the development of specialised lines of products with marine ingredients by some of the leading cosmetic companies, as well as the appearance of small, specialised companies focused on cosmetic products of marine origin. Some examples of products produced by marine microorganisms and currently in use are an exfoliant made of marine peptides and enzymes, a moisturising agent based on a hyaluronic acid-related compound obtained from a bacterium, or a skin protector with anti-ageing properties obtained from the halophyllic bacteria Halomonas. The focus in marine microorganisms as a preferred source of novel compounds has strong merit, from the wide diversity of structural components and secondary metabolites that can be isolated from this source, or the lack of impact on the marine ecosystems that growing a marine-derived bacteria or fungi in a fermentor will have. The diversity found in the chemical production of microorganisms is strongly influenced by the taxonomic diversity and the geographical and environmental characteristics of the sampling points, as well as by the methodology used in the isolation and fermentation of the isolated strains. In the process of discovering novel cosmetic ingredients of marine origin, the initial collection will be screened against selected targets, and the combination of the quality of the collection and the relevance of the screening system for the final application, will determine the chances of success of the process. Technical expertise is essential for tapping into the sea resources, and so is the knowledge of the diverse and complex needs that the cosmetic industry and its customers have. This complexity makes symbiosis between ‘blue biotechnology companies’ and cosmetic ingredient developers a natural step toward the development of novel products, and an increasing number of deals signed between cosmetic companies and marine biotechnology companies is a clear sign of this tendency. Infinitec and Biomar share an interest in finding novel cosmetic ingredients in the sea, and the joint effort is the basis for some of the activities described in this article. In this article we will review some of the technical challenges in creating a diverse collection of marine microorganisms and their screening for cosmetic applications.

The quest for biodiversity

Prospection