Core Biogenesis offers new path in personal care with molecular farming

The personal care industry is exploring ways to enhance environmental sustainability without compromising performance. Core Biogenesis uses molecular farming to create skin care ingredients that offer superior or equal function to their human counterparts, while leaving a reduced carbon footprint. 

Personal Care Insights sits down with Tony Abboud, chief commercial officer of Core Biogenesis, to discuss the company’s molecular farming model and the future of biotech in personal care. 

Molecular farming utilizes plants as natural biofactories to produce complex biomimetic human proteins. It enables the production of a much broader range of these proteins, which extend beyond growth factors.

“Through our modular Core Biodesign platform, we can efficiently express human-sequence proteins such as lactoferrin, albumin, collagen-mimetic peptides, and microbiome-modulating defense peptides directly in plants,” says Abboud.

These molecules play defined biological roles — lactoferrin in inflammation control and antimicrobial defense, albumin in hydration and structural stability, and collagen mimetics in dermal signaling without animal inputs.

“Producing them in plants allows us to deliver these complex proteins with high purity, consistent structure, and significantly lower environmental impact than fermentation or animal-derived methods,” Abboud adds.

“In short, molecular farming opens the door to a new class of clinically relevant, human-identical proteins that can expand and elevate the future of biotech beauty.”

Core Biogenesis uses oleosomes for anti-aging skin care.Molecular farming for skin care

Core Biogenesis uses Camelina sativa, an oilseed crop, to express growth factors fused to the plant’s oil bodies, known as oleosomes.

“These proteins are then purified through a clean, scalable process that avoids animal or microbial systems entirely,” says Abboud.

He explains that this approach provides several advantages for the skin care industry. It eliminates animal-derived components, reduces production energy and water usage, and delivers consistent, high-purity biomolecules that are fully traceable and environmentally responsible.

“The resulting proteins are identical in sequence to their human counterparts, ensuring biological relevance and optimal skin compatibility,” he says.

Traditional fermentation-derived biotech actives are often expensive due to their production at large industrial scales, making them inaccessible to smaller brands.

“By producing proteins directly in plants, we dramatically reduce both cost and complexity, allowing us to offer minimum order quantities as low as one kg and lead times of less than two weeks, something virtually unheard of for recombinant proteins,” Abboud asserts.

“Superior to retinol”

Core Biogenesis claims that its patented ingredients derived from molecular farming, Peauforia (oleosome-FGF-2) and Peauvita (oleosome-EGF), are superior to the popular anti-aging ingredient retinol.

“Retinol relies on controlled irritation to stimulate skin turnover, which often results in redness, dryness, or peeling. By contrast, Peauforia and Peauvita act through natural cellular signaling pathways,” says Abboud.

These growth factors directly activate fibroblasts and keratinocytes, promoting the synthesis of collagen, elastin, and key structural proteins that restore firmness and barrier integrity.

“In controlled clinical studies, formulations containing 1% of these actives demonstrated measurable improvements in firmness, texture, and evenness within 14 days, without irritation. In head-to-head comparisons, they achieved comparable or superior wrinkle reduction to 0.3% retinol without irritation.”

The serum contains a base formulation built around oleosome-fused growth factors. The oleosomes protect the proteins from degradation, providing sustained delivery to the deep layers of the skin.

Strong, active ingredients like retinol can disrupt the delicate skin barrier in younger users, leading to short-term dryness and irritation, and potentially longer-term sensitivity, a spokesperson from the British Skin Foundation previously told Personal Care Insights.

Abboud states that, compared to retinol, oleosomes do not cause skin irritation. They are naturally occurring lipid vesicles found in all plant seeds.

Oleosomes are biocompatible and biodegradable, and are widely used as mild emollients in clean cosmetic formulations.

“In both patch and repeat-insult testing, oleosome-fused growth factors produced no irritation, erythema, or sensitization. Their lipid composition closely resembles that of the skin barrier, which actually enhances tolerance and supports barrier repair,” says Abboud.

Molecular farming delivers high-purity human proteins with low environmental impact.Environmental sustainability

Molecular farming provides a solution to sustainability concerns in the personal care industry. Abboud says the technology offers a fundamentally lower-impact alternative to conventional fermentation.

“Because our proteins are produced directly in Camelina sativa grown in controlled greenhouse environments, the process avoids the intensive energy demands of bioreactors and allows for highly efficient use of water, space, and inputs.”

“In this system, Camelina functions as a natural expression host, enabling protein production without the need for microbial or mammalian cell culture, complex media, or continuous temperature-controlled infrastructure.”

The result is a streamlined, low-energy process with a reduced carbon footprint. All production is integrated into a closed and fully traceable agricultural-bioprocessing loop, ensuring consistency, environmental control, and minimal waste.

“Compared to fermentation-based systems, this approach delivers high-purity human proteins with substantially lower environmental impact across their entire lifecycle,” says Abboud.

Big year for biotech beauty

Looking to 2026, Abboud says Core Biogenesis now has multiple commercial launches planned with global skin care and beauty brands.

“We are expanding our scientific work with new clinical studies, additional real-world performance data, and the introduction of new biomimetic ingredients built on our molecular farming platform.”

“These programs will significantly broaden what brands can achieve with sustainable, human-identical proteins, and 2026 will be an important year — not only for our partners but for the future of biotech beauty as a whole,” he concludes.