For five years, it operated in stealth mode, away from the spotlight. Now Outer Bio has finally come out of the shadows, and everyone is talking about it. Michael Polansky leads the startup as CEO, alongside Lady Gaga on the board of directors, but it’s not just the famous names that are grabbing people’s attention. The technology it has developed to study the skin is called Yuna, a platform capable of keeping full-thickness human skin alive outside the body for about four weeks. This is much longer than traditional ex vivo models and allows for the observation of processes such as collagen remodeling, inflammation, and cellular senescence, which take weeks to develop.
The idea behind Outer Bio stems from a limitation in research: many skincare tests are conducted on simplified models, whereas real skin is much more complex. Yuna, in fact, utilizes the epidermis, dermis, various cell types, and immune functions, with samples sourced from donors of different ages, genders, and skin types. Each test can generate over 30,000 data points, and to date, the platform has collected more than 10 terabytes of proprietary data from over 300 donors and 10,000 treatments.
The data is used to train machine learning models capable of predicting which compounds might work before testing them on the skin. The results of the experiments are then fed back into the system, making subsequent predictions increasingly accurate. The goal is not only to find the next skincare ingredient, but to understand how the skin changes over time and which biological mechanisms can be modified. Outer Bio’s virtual library already includes 5.9 million compounds.
What Does Outer Bio Do?
The research focuses primarily on some of the most important areas of skincare.
Aging and Senescence: Yuna makes it possible to observe age-related changes over the course of weeks, even when working with tissue from older donors. This allows researchers to study cellular senescence—the process by which certain cells cease to function normally—and identify potential strategies to counteract it.
Inflammation: The platform can sustain inflammatory responses for longer periods than traditional models. This makes it possible to study phenomena related to chronic inflammation and determine which compounds can reduce or modify it.
Collagen and the skin matrix: Another area of focus is the remodeling of the extracellular matrix—that is, everything related to collagen production and organization, as well as structural changes in the skin. This is particularly relevant when discussing loss of elasticity and signs of aging.
Environmental damage and photoaging: As an open system, Yuna can expose the skin to external stressors, such as UV rays, and track its response over time. The goal is to better understand how this damage develops and which substances can help prevent or limit it.
New biological mechanisms: and perhaps the most ambitious part. Using data collected from human skin, Outer Bio seeks to identify biological targets that have yet to be fully explored and the most promising compounds to act on them. In other words, the goal is not only to understand which ingredient works, but also to discover why it works and what might work even better.
[📸 outerbio.com]
