Biotechnology in Personal Care PDF

Preface

This book is an attempt to connect one of the newest technologies, biotechnology, to one of the oldest human needs—that of looking or staying young. The use of biological or natural ingredients in cosmetics and for personal care is ancient, known since the time of Cleopatra, who used many remedies containing natural ingredients, such as "henna" for hair color. In the twenty-first century, the application of biotechnology has begun to revolutionize the personal care industry by making novel ingredients available for fulfilling personal care needs and by providing insights into the biological processes that could be used to develop new products.

Many economists, futurists, scientists, and thought leaders refer to the twenty-first century as the century of biology, specifically of biotechnology. As our understanding of the human biology has expanded in the last few decades, the excitement around the impact of biotechnology on a range of industries has grown. Many biotechnologists believe that so far, we have only scratched the surface of the potential of biotechnology. In the coming years, biotechnology is not only poised to make an impact on health care, but is also geared toward offering breakthrough innovations for personal care. Biotechnology has passed the stage of curiosity or early discoveries and is now entering into the ascending portion of the S-curve, suggesting that the time has come for it to fulfill its promise. Such bullish enthusiasm could be ascribed to many things, such as—completion of the sequencing of the human genome; progress in information technology, which has expanded the volume of data that computers can now handle; and the increased number of tools, techniques, and instruments now available to the biotechnologist. Of course, biotechnology's biggest impact will be felt in health care, but at the same time, knowledge gained during the development of pharmaceutical products could be used to create new personal care products that would truly meet the current unmet consumer needs.

The current era is often referred to as the "knowledge-based economy" since most of the new technologies that are involved in growing the global economy are based on knowledge. And biotechnology is no exception. First, biotechnology needs discoveries in basic sciences. A number of discoveries have been made since the discovery of DNA 50 years ago, but many more are still essential to get the most out of biotechnology. Second, those discoveries need to result in accumulation of knowledge that would lead to elucidating the underlying mechanisms of healthy skin, hair, and lips such that products could be developed by the personal care industry. Finally, production processes and stable formulations need to be developed, based on the accumulation of precise knowledge about microbial physiology, scale up, and protein stability. Only then can biotechnology become a viable commercial technology for the personal care industry and make a true impact on the development of personal care products.

As a result, among many of the new technologies, biotechnology is one of the most R&D-intensive technologies. In addition, biotechnology-based ingredients need to be produced at the costs that are in line with other ingredients used in the personal care industry. This means that for biotechnology to gain a foothold in personal care, biotechnology companies have to spend money on research in a manner similar to drug development companies, but in return for a smaller reward. This hurdle can be overcome via cooperation between biotechnology and personal care companies by taking advantage of the knowledge developed by pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions. This book is an effort toward achieving that goal. Contributors represent biotechnology scientists, scientists working in the personal care industry, academics, and other supporting disciplines.

Both "personal care" and "biotechnology" encompass huge areas of science and applications. These terms have no strict definitions and are used broadly. Biotechnology means different things to different people. In addition, its meaning has evolved over time. Many thought leaders perceive biotechnology as mostly related to human genome efforts and health care and have a very broad definition for it. Here are a couple of definitions of biotechnology:

1. Biotechnology: FDA definition

Application of biological systems and organisms to technical and industrial processes

2. Biotechnology: BIO (Biotechnology Industrial Organization) definition Break biotechnology into its root words and you have .

• bio—using biological processes; and 

• technology—solving problems or making useful products.

To manage the content of this book, use of the term biotechnology (and products derived from it) is restricted to: "products produced by microorganisms in which genes are modified by recombinant DNA technologies." In addition, the book addresses use of recombinant DNA technology to identify mechanisms and targets to develop new personal care products and ingredients. In this book, an attempt is made to cover as many applications as possible that fall under a broad definition of personal care, for example, skin, hair, oral, and lip care, as well as other cosmetics.

This is a forward-looking book. It covers not only biotechnology ingredients currently used in personal care, but also a significant focus is on the use of biotechnology to develop new ingredients and future personal care products. Unlike the computer industry, where new technologies make older ones obsolete, in biotechnology, scientists build on each others' knowledge so that new, efficacious products can be developed. This book, therefore, strives to emphasize this look into the future so that innovation processes and overall progress can be accelerated.

This book is divided into three sections:

I. Biotechnology: What It Is and Current Products

II. Biotechnology: Use in Personal Care Applications

III. Biotechnology: Challenges in the Personal Care World

The first section, which includes chapters 1–4, familiarizes the readers with biotechnology and related terms. It covers the fundamentals of biotechnology and provides short descriptions of key terms like, cloning, RNA, DNA, rDNA, protein engineering, genetic engineering, genomics and proteomics, and so on. Since the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1950s, many innovations have been made, and I believe many more are coming. Therefore, this section also covers upcoming technologies based on new tools that are being developed. It also covers biotechnology-based products currently used in personal care applications. These include proteins, peptides, enzymes, and biologicals.

The second section (chaps. 5–14) looks at many personal care applications individually. Each application is represented from a biotechnology perspective. Individual chapters cover historical perspective for the application and how biotechnology is used to understand the underlying mechanisms and to develop products.

The third section, containing chapters 15–17, covers the challenges that scientists and industry could face as the use of biotechnology expands in personal care products. This is not unique, because adaptation of any new technology by the personal care or any other industry would face some key challenges. We all have to remember that the personal care industry is one of the oldest and most practiced industries; therefore, adapting to new processes will be challenging. At the same time, this book represents my strong belief that in the long term, biotechnology will change the personal care marketplace.