Ready to Wear

We can’t see them. We can’t hear them. We can’t feel them. But they are everywhere—our bodies are covered in them: microorganisms. These tiny organisms are invisible to the naked eye and colonize our skin in unimaginable numbers.

An estimated 30 trillion bacteria live in and on a human body. They cavort in the pores on our arms, multiply in the sebum of our nose or feed on the sweat from the moist warmth of our armpits.

Sounds gross? It is, in fact, completely natural. Humans are even dependent on these fellow inhabitants. For example, they keep the skin’s protective acid mantle stable and provide natural protection against pathogens. Without a stable skin microbiome, as the community of microbes on our skin is called, pathogens would have an easy time of it.

It is therefore worthwhile to look after the healthy microorganisms on the skin as well as the skin itself. But is that even possible, given the many cosmetics used in our bathrooms? According to surveys, half of all people in Germany use skin care products every day. Worldwide sales of cleansers and creams, lotions and masks, serums and oils will reach several hundred billion US dollars this year.

Pelzer, who has already promoted research into the gut microbiome for the Animal Nutrition unit, is currently working with his team on creating a basis for assessing the effect of cosmetics on the skin microbiome early on in the laboratory phase. Evonik also develops, produces, and markets ingredients for skin care products. Customers of the Care Solutions unit are cosmetics companies that want to translate the latest findings on the microbiome and the interest of potential end consumers into a corresponding product range.

This requires active ingredients and excipients that are demonstrably “microbiome-friendly.” Manufacturers use them to formulate products that can be advertised with the corresponding promise. “This is what we call a product that neither disrupts the reproduction of the microorganisms nor seriously alters their diversity,” explains Pelzer.

The “natural population” includes, for example, staphylococci, which like to arrange themselves in grape-like formations; corynebacteria, which look like small clubs under the microscope; rod-shaped cutibacteria; and many more. The community of microorganisms is diverse, but differs in its composition depending on which part of the body you look at. The same bacteria do not live in the moist environment of the back of the knee as on the rather dry forearms. And in the sebum of an oily forehead, which is exposed to a lot of sunlight, different co-inhabitants feel at home than in intimate areas, where bacteria have to make do with little light and oxygen. Only very specific species can be found almost everywhere as “all-rounders”—and that’s why Evonik focuses on them.

Preservatives are something of a challenge for the creation of a microbiome-friendly product. They are essential to ensure that a cream in a jar keeps after opening. After application, however, they also inhibit the growth of “good” bacteria on the skin, at least temporarily. The aim here is to find agents that fulfill their function as preservatives on the one hand and do as little harm as possible to the microbiome on the other.

At the Hamburg location, a team from Care Solutions is working on precisely this task. It is developing preservatives exclusively from natural raw materials.

If the bacterial community on the skin is out of balance for a longer period of time, for example due to antibiotics or excessive hygiene, this weakens the skin’s barrier function. Undesirable microorganisms can then gain the upper hand. Here’s one example: Cutibacterium acnes is one of the most common representatives on human skin. However, if certain strains become too dominant, this can promote acne. It can also cause a yeast to spread more easily, causing dandruff to form. In addition to cosmetics that disturb the microbiome as little as possible, Evonik’s research is also looking at care products that actually promote the growth of certain bacteria—similar to how probiotic yogurts can be used to keep the intestinal flora healthy.

Some of the work that people used to perform is now done by machines in the Evonik laboratory. In one room, high-tech robots pick bacteria from culture media; in another, they pipette and dilute samples via precise movements. “The automation of work steps saves us a lot of time,” says Pelzer. “It allows us to achieve results faster and creates capacity for other tasks.”

An example of this is the research into the microbiome in acne, which, at Evonik, is the responsibility of Michelle Dargatz. A biotechnologist, Dargatz has been working at the company for seven years and recently presented one of Evonik’s models at an international skin microbiome congress in The Hague. In Künsebeck, she is currently developing the first model to simulate problematic skin.

The first test with stress factors is currently under way in a laboratory sterile bank: Michelle Dargatz wants to test how her bacteria react to UV light, i.e. sunlight. They stand in bright blue light for a few hours, after which they are counted to see if they can still multiply normally.

“With the help of the two models for normal and acne-prone skin, we want to precisely understand microorganisms and their interactions in order to improve the products for our customers,” says Pelzer.

So far, the team has tested around 30 substances from cosmetics on the cultures, including both its own ingredients and products from customers. One important finding is that the formulation, i.e. the mix of different substances, can cancel out or change the effect of individual ingredients.

In the future, Pelzer’s team plans to use the skin microbiome models primarily to test ingredients and formulations from the Evonik laboratories. In addition, further microbiome models are to be developed that mimic scalps with dandruff, atopic dermatitis or older skin. Pelzer adds that computer simulations could soon support his research thanks to artificial intelligence and make predictions about the effects of substances.

The team at the Biotech Hub still examines the bacteria in test tubes, but Pelzer is already planning the next step. “In the future, the ultimate feat would be to study the microbes on artificial 3D skin tissue in order to also investigate their interaction with skin cells,” he says.

To achieve this goal, the group in Halle-Künsebeck works closely with other Evonik research units. Among them is the Evonik Skin Institute in Singapore, which was founded in March 2024. “Investigating how cosmetics affect the skin and what consumers can expect from the products is one of our specialties,” says the institute’s head, Dr. Jennifer Bourland, a cell biologist.

Her team not only works on cell cultures and tissues but also has tests carried out on volunteers. The Skin Institute thus serves as an interface between the market and science. For the past three or four years, the microbiome have been playing an increasingly important role in the cosmetics industry, reports Bourland. “And it’s now more than just a trend,” she says. “The skin microbiome has become a very important factor in the marketing of cosmetic products.”

More than 20 employees work with Bourland at the Skin Institute on various projects, but the biotechnologist is particularly fascinated by the microbiome. “It is becoming increasingly clear that it is not only associated with diseases but also interacts with the skin in healthy people and, like the gut microbiome, has an influence on many areas of our lives.”

To achieve this, the Skin Institute is working together with various startups that investigate skin biology. “Our network is an important key to success as we search for new paths and innovations,” says Bourland. However, testing the microbiome on laboratory skin is still in its infancy. “The models are not yet representative of what actually happens on skin,” says Bourland, “but we’re working on it.”

She believes that many cosmetics on drugstore shelves will be microbiome-friendly in the foreseeable future. “The biggest challenge in their development will be to address as many microbiomes as possible, as these are very individual in nature,” says Bourland.

Evonik is networked worldwide to further explore this distinctiveness. The researchers from Künsebeck are also in contact with the Center for Microbiome Innovation at the University of California in San Diego, USA. In addition, there is the communication with cosmetics manufacturers who have their customers’ interests in mind. Whether in California, Singapore or Germany, there’s a clear common goal: In the future, scientifically proven care products will protect and support the skin microbiome in order to maintain health and enable optimal skin care—completely individually.