PARIS – L’Oréal is bolstering its presence in North America’s innovation ecosystem by partnering with University of California Berkeley’s Bakar Labs, a biotech incubator, with the aim of furthering biotech innovation.

Bakar Labs’ startups could have access to L’Oréal’s Research and Innovation resources and expertise in fields similar to skin biology. For the sweetness giant, the tie-in is predicted to offer learnings from the early-stage biotech firms to expand the group’s product lineup.

“Biotech is an integral a part of our present and future at L’Oréal,” explained Barbara Lavernos, deputy chief executive officer, answerable for research, innovation and technology at L’Oréal. “It propels us to grasp and harness nature’s secrets in an ethical and sustainable manner: Already 61 percent of our ingredients are bio-based or from abundant mineral sources, and we aim to succeed in 95 percent by 2030.”

“This partnership focuses on pioneering the following generation of beauty products, leveraging the science of the microbiome and other advanced biological technologies,” L’Oréal said in an announcement.

“This collaboration allows us to further expand and power the perfect startups with alternative testing solutions for a world without animal testing,” said Lavernos. “L’Oréal has been on the forefront of non-animal methods for over 40 years, and we imagine that scientific and regulatory advancement of non-animal methods is just possible through multidisciplinary cooperation.

“That’s why we’re offering Bakar Labs free access to our proprietary 3D reconstructed skin models for safety and efficacy testing,” she said. “We’ve been pioneering this technology for over 25 years and producing it at a high scale. It is a strong ethical alternative to animal testing and a robust tool to support latest discoveries, while accelerating their development.”

Lavernos quoted Steve Jobs as saying: “The long run of humanity lies on the intersection of biology and tech.”

“That is precisely the goal of our 3D reconstructed skin models for a world without animal testing and alternative models,” she said.

The partnership will concentrate on driving personalized innovations, improving skin health and specializing in specific skin concerns with more practical and modern solutions, in keeping with L’Oréal.

Along with sharing reconstructed skin models, Lavernos said: “As Bakar has a wealthy ecosystem of startups within the realm of skin microbiome and advanced biological technologies, similar to SynBio – synthetic biology – we hope to also create mutual collaborations around latest technologies that may power the strong commitments of L’Oréal to sustainable and green science innovations,” said Lavernos.

Bakar Labs are within the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub on the university campus and have greater than 40,000-square feet of lab and office space housing as much as 50 startups without delay. Those span numerous disciplines, including therapeutics, diagnostics and food and agricultural tech.

“This collaboration will provide worthwhile resources and expertise to our tenant firms, and permit us to work alongside L’Oréal to advance the biotechnology fields across pharmaceutical and sweetness industries,” said David Schaffer, professor at UC Berkeley and director of Bakar Labs.

L’Oréal R&I Open Innovation strategy includes tie-ins with numerous academic institutions and startups in domains similar to biotech.

L’Oréal is the primary beauty company to collaborate with Bakar Labs.

“This collaboration is one other significant step in our global commitment to foster innovation through partnerships, specifically in the sphere of biotech that we imagine is a powerful lever to speed up our innovation roadmap in green sciences,” said Lavernos.

In North America, L’Oréal recently invested within the likes of Debut, specializing in “cell-free” manufacturing, and the Geno-led initiative centered on developing, producing and commercializing biotech-based alternatives to key beauty product ingredients. It also has ongoing partnership with Verily, an Alphabet company.

“But our door doesn’t close here,” said Lavernos. “We’re at all times open to latest collaborations that align with our vision and values. Our driving forces is to maneuver closer to the collective goal of delivering the perfect of beauty to consumers, fostering a more responsible, inclusive and modern industry.”  

Biotech is a key tenant of L’Oréal’s Green Sciences strategy.

“With green sciences, we’re developing a latest paradigm with nature front and center,” said Lavernos. “This revolution happening inside our labs blends biology and technology to create high-performance beauty products that increasingly respect our planet’s limits.”

L’Oréal earmarks greater than 1 billion euros for R&I yearly.

“Our engagement with biotech also plays a central role in reaching our L’Oréal for the Future 2030 commitments, which revolve around our impact on climate change, sustainable water management, preservation of biodiversity and circular use of resources,” said Lavernos. “As we proceed to explore and leverage biotech advancement, we remain true to our sense of purpose to ‘create the sweetness that moves the world.’”