Reversing Skin Aging For Longevity, Senescent Cells, New OneSkin Products, And More With Dr Carolina

Welcome to another episode of the Longevity and Lifestyle Podcast. I'm your host, Claudia von Boeselager, here to uncover the groundbreaking strategies, tools, and practices from the world's pioneering experts to help you live at your best and reach your highest potential. If you want to get top tips, insights, and strategies from me on a weekly basis to optimize your life, health, and business, Grab my weekly newsletter by going to llinsider.com today. Today's guest is a returning guest here for round 2, Dr. Carolina Reis Oliveira. I'm pronouncing that right. Co-founder and CEO of OneSkin, a fast-growing skin longevity company developing products to promote skin health by targeting aging at a molecular level. Carolina holds a PhD in stem cell biology and tissue engineering and is an alumnus of IndieBio, a renowned biotech accelerator. And has been an active voice in the longevity field, pioneering age reversal skin research at OneSkin. Carolina, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so happy to see you again.

Oh, thank you so much, Claudia. It's a great pleasure to be here.

Thanks, Carolina. So for those who perhaps missed our first episode, I was looking back and it's almost 2 years, Carolina.

I can't believe it.

I thought it was last year. As time flies, I'd love to start with a question on skin longevity. And can you explain a bit more for those maybe unfamiliar, a little bit more about the science behind what you are doing at OneSkin to support healthy skin aging?

Yeah, sure. So at OneSkin, we've been studying skin aging for the past 7 years and what we realize is that one of the main drivers of aging, and this is not only true for skin but for different organs and tissues in our bodies, is the accumulation of aged damaged cells, also called senescent cells. So for those that who are not familiar, I imagine most of you are, but you know, brief explanation of senescent cells. These are cells that have reached like their limit in replication. So they have accumulated a lot of mutation damage. And because of that, they stop dividing, which is good. Otherwise they could become a cancer, a tumor. So this is a mechanism of defense from our body. And when we are younger, bodies are able to clear out those cells. So that's great. When we grow older, we lose that efficiency. So our immune system is not able to clear those cells out anymore as efficiently. So they start to build up in our tissues and they start secreting inflammatory signals. That basically spoils the healthy cells around it to age faster. So we like to compare the senescent or the zombie cells with like a bad apple in a bunch because one senescent cell basically spoils the good cells around. So the hypothesis, the rationale behind our company and our products is that if we can find the new molecules and we're more Specifically interested in peptides. If we can find peptides that can selectively eliminate or decrease the amount of senescent cells in the skin, this is a way that we can allow the healthy cells to proliferate. And basically we can promote this rejuvenation from the inside out in a much more targeted way that doesn't disturb the good, the healthy cells, doesn't cause any irritation, sensitization. Very different from other anti-aging products that are out there that, you know, they can work to improve the appearance of your skin, but a lot of times they bring the side effects of inflammation and peeling. So with that, we decided to test and we screened over almost 1,000 peptides until we got to this main peptide, OS-001, that has this ability to decrease up to 50% the amount of senescent cells in the skin.. And with that, we can basically promote collagen production, hyaluronic acid production. This leads to a stronger skin barrier. And as a result, you have a better overall appearance and, you know, a youthful appearance as well. So our hypothesis, let's understand, you know, what do we believe that's a very important driver of aging and let's target there.. And the consequence is that your skin will be healthier, stronger, more functional for longer. And you know what we all want? Look a little younger as well.

I think that ticks all the boxes, which pretty much every woman, if not men, I have clients like, what do I do for wrinkles? I'm like, check out OneSkin. Yeah. So since we last spoke, Carolina, you've had some exciting developments happening at OneSkin that I'd love you to share and maybe even share some of the challenges that you found along the way as Well, yeah.

So I think for us initially we started with the face products. So is our face moisturizer that, you know, contains OS-01. And because our mission is to promote skin health as a whole, our second product was basically a body product. We want to treat your skin as a whole. And, and we can talk more about the implications of your skin aging and your overall health. So this made a lot of sense for us and we spent quite some time to get to a body product that we launched last year. And basically there are some differences between the face and the body. The concentration of the peptide, obviously your body is not as exposed to this damage that your face, your neck, and hands are. So we can use a lower concentration of the peptide. And we also use like a different combinations of ingredients that's more suitable to the skin of your body. So the skin of your body tends to get more dry and it's thicker. So for example, we can use this really strong moisturizing ingredients called tremella mushrooms that can hold up to 400 times more water than hyaluronic acid. That's like what everyone knows. That's really powerful for hydration. So this product has been like a great success because most people are not thinking about your body. Everyone is just like, okay, my face and, and stops there. But we want to make sure that we are treating the skin as an organ. And for us, this was like super important. And we are super glad that you see actually like the traction and the feedback that we are getting on the body products. So One thing that we are not aware of, because, you know, most people may be a little younger, is that as we age and our skin starts to deteriorate, we experience like several challenges in terms of itching, flakiness in the skin of your body. The skin gets more fragile, tends to tear more easily, so you get a lot of bruises. So our goal with this new product is obviously, you know, we want to prevent wrinkles and everything.. But we want to make sure that we keep our skin resilient and stronger so we don't get to experience, you know, those issues and challenges in the future. So very excited about this new one. The third one that we launched is basically a cleanser. Obviously, you know, a cleanser is like a basic step in any skincare routine. It's really important to cleanse your skin first so you remove like impurities, dead cells and you allow your skin to best absorb all the ingredients of the products that will come after. And with our cleanser, we designed it in a way that it doesn't disturb your skin microbiome, which is really important. It doesn't dry out your skin. And we also validated that with the cleanser, more than double the absorption of the peptide. When you use the face product right after. So it's a way to optimize or to enhance, you know, the effect of the face product when you combine both. It's a product that is suitable for all skin types, like sensitive skin. All of our products, they are made with like the number one rule of like being safe and being not irritant or not like causing any sensitization. So that kind of a safe option for people that have those kind of issues. And most recently, we just launched our fourth product that our goal is not again to have too many products. So we want to create a very minimalist line. But this one was very interesting because the more we studied about skin, the more we saw like the difference in the skin in our body. So obviously the skin of your face is different from the skin of the rest of your body, but the skin around your eyes are actually different from the skin of the rest of your face. So this is super interesting. So the skin is like around 5 times thinner than the rest of your face around your eyes. There are studies showing that the biological age can be 20 to 30 years older, the skin under and above your eyes compared to the skin on the temple. So really close. But because we are like, you know, moving this muscle all the time, you know, it's super exposed. It tends to age faster. There are studies also showing that the markers of senescence are higher in the skin of the, you know, eyelids and under eyes. So because all of that, it made sense to develop a product specifically for the eye area. It's also, you know, one of the areas that people are more concerned about. And for that product, we increase the concentration of the peptide, so it has like the highest concentration, 25% more than the concentration of the face. And we also added other ingredients that will help with other issues that people experience, such as like dark circles, puffiness, uh, and we have incredible data showing that increases collagen production, increases elasticity, hyaluronic acid production. So that's our newest product. And people are really, you know, their results are really impressive. So I recommend anyone that want to just kind of get a sense of what people are, you know, thinking about to read the reviews because they speak much better than I do about, you know, what the product can make for them.

And it's absolutely amazing. I'd love to dig into a few points there as well. So first of all, huge congratulations for launching it. And I really love your guys' philosophy that it's not about bringing out masses of different products, but actually really, really focused in on the key areas that are different, right? So the eye versus the face versus the body, and then making them as good as they can be to really bring the results. I'm curious, just with the eye product for dark circles, like how does that help with dark circles, for example? Because I get with the collagen, and I, I get with the, you know, treating the hydration, but how does it help dark circles?

Like, what's going on there? Yeah, that's a great question. So a lot of times the dark circles are a result of, like, the skin getting thinner. So, you know, you can basically see through a little closer the vessels, the blood vessels that are under your eye and those muscles. So when you start, like, increasing more collagen and increasing the firmness and the thickness of the skin, that's how you eventually alleviate or attenuate the dark circles. And, uh, was, you know, something that I learned throughout this development process as well.

And for face, would you consider— I've heard sometimes they say that you should treat the face, the neck, and the décolleté, right, the upper chest, because of the more sun exposure and things like that, as the extension of the face. So would you say that that's the good place to put face cream?

Yes, I would say so. If you are more exposed to sun and obviously if you use like clothes that expose your décolleté, I would definitely suggest it. And neck, including neck as well, because it's another area that we forget when we're young. And then only when, you know, we start seeing the sagging that, oh yes, I've been neglecting my neck. So, and it's again, it's the skin that's a little more, you know, thinner and delicate. So. It's always important to give that care as early as possible.

Really, really exciting. What are some of the biggest success stories from, or reviews that you've had from customers on the products?

What have been the biggest breakthroughs for them? Wow. It's so many, like I get, sometimes I get like impressed with, you know, all of those stories. But I mean, for the body, like a lot of people that, were not like using, you know, short sleeves anymore because they were ashamed of how their arms looked. It was like so sagging and wrinkled and with crepey skin. And now they're, you know, they're comfortable again. They are using dresses and they're using, you know, short sleeves shirts. So this is super cool. A lot of people with issues again with like itching, flakiness, improving the thickness of this skin, makes people more like comfortable, you know, like on their daily lives. The eye, I mean, there are some like people seeing results, which is really fast, like 2 to 4 weeks. We usually educate people about the importance of the consistency, that the results will come with time, is accumulative result. We want to change basically the makeup of your cells, working, you know, in the inner layers of the skin. It takes time, but again, because the skin is thinner, we believe that the effects are faster because it penetrates faster, and then you can start seeing those improvements, those benefits, faster than the face. So this was really, really impressive as well. And for the face, I mean, there are so many people like improving other issues beyond the just appearance, you know, like even like if I had a patch of eczema or psoriasis, because in the end, these are conditions that are associated with like a weak skin barrier. And when you are like strengthening your skin from the inside out, it results in a stronger skin barrier. Consequently, you improve or you like heal some of those issues with their skin. So I think for us, this all is so rewarding because Again, we are here to promote skin longevity. And for us, like, skin longevity is about having healthy skin, functional skin, skin that you feel comfortable in. Obviously, you know, we want to look as best that we can, but I think solving those issues are the most important thing that we can offer to our customers.

Really, really exciting. I mean, as you said, the largest organ that we have. And so many people are focusing on, you know, optimizing what's on the inside. But obviously we want to make sure that the outside matches how young we feel on the inside as well. So skin longevity, skin aging well is so important too. One area you touched on before, and I'd love to expand on it a bit, is skin aging and overall health. Could you discuss that a little bit more for people who maybe are not so familiar?

Yeah, definitely. I think this, for me, it's one of the areas that most fascinate me because I think it's common that people will look at their skin just from the aesthetics point of view and forget that it's our largest organ and it's a functional organ, right? So besides like protecting, working as a skin barrier, you know, that protects our bodies from external stressors, the skin is important for for like regulating temperature, vitamin D production, is a sensory organ, and so much more. And what we learned with, you know, studying aging and skin more specifically is that when the skin ages and starts to deteriorate and start to accumulate those senescent cells, those senescent cells will start to secrete inflammatory signals. And because the skin is the largest organ, that inflammation that's coming from our skin can actually elevate the inflammation in our body, in our blood. So we all talk about inflammation, right? That is this, you know, chronic inflammation that our bodies produce, then it's intrinsically related with aging. So the more inflammation, the faster you're aging. And if your skin is a source of that inflammation, that means that if we can treat your skin topically, if we can reduce the inflammation that's coming from our skin, we'll be able to lower our levels of inflammation systemically and hopefully, you know, aid in these preventative measurements that we do to avoid chronic diseases, right? So one study that we are doing right now, which to me is fascinating, it's basically collecting blood of participants before the study and they're using the product in their whole body, like the face and the body product for 3 months. So using the product topically, obviously, and then we're collecting blood again after 3 months and we are measuring the impact of this topical treatment, hopefully reducing the inflammatory signals that we can measure in the blood. So with that, it would be a great way to actually prove this connection and actually call the attention to people that if you're looking to live your best life and your healthiest life, You should treat your skin as an organ, as you treat your heart, your liver, and, you know, as you take care of the other organs of your body. So super excited about that study that's coming up probably by the middle of the year. Yeah.

Super exciting. Yeah. And does that study also with everything else just remains consistent? So they're not changing anything else. It's just use of that.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We do run like questionnaires to make sure that they haven't gone through any major life events, you know, but we expect that this is the only change that they would be doing in their lifestyle.

Yeah, that's exciting. What other clinical research do you have planned?

What are the things in the pipeline? Yeah, we— another one that we have done like a pilot last year, it's about measuring the skin biological age reversal. So I know that your community knows about biological age and what it means, right? It means how healthy our tissues and organs are in comparison with our chronological age. So we want to measure how much our product can actually reverse our skin biological age. So for the first study, we ran it for 6 months up to 12 months. So it was like a very small study, but people use the product for up to 12 months and we collect biopsies. And after 12 months, we saw a reduction in 3.6 years in the skin biological age, which was close to significance, but was not significant yet. So that's why we are repeating now with a larger cohort. And we even believe that we may see results with like 6 months. So this study is just starting now. We should have the data by the end of the year. But again, it will be the first time that we can actually quantify the age reversal capacity of a topical product at the molecular level, because in the end we are measuring the epigenetic profile, the DNA status of those skin cells. So super excited about that one too.

That's really exciting. And I wonder if it was prolonged over many years, like would that exponentially compound, right?

Yeah, that's— I mean, that's what we believe, right? Because If you're already reversing, you know, 2, 3 years, you are not aging already, right? So it's good because if your chronological age is 60 and then your skin biological age is 57, maybe next year you're going to be 61 and your skin will be, you know, 57 or 56. So I think this is harder to get that data because keeping studies for years is so expensive, but that's what we, you know, we assume based on the biology.

And also, Caroline, I'd love you to share that you have a very special approach to testing. Can you share with my audience a bit more about what makes you guys so special, how you actually test your products?

Yeah, we have a very comprehensive platform to actually first replicate skin aging in the lab so we can grow human skins, and we can basically simulate the skin aging. We can use cells from donors from various ages. So we have like neonatal skin, adult skin. We can also expose young skin to UV damage and again induce the aging process. So this is like the main testing, I would say, model that we have, which is really great because it predicts really well how a human skin would react whenever it's in contact with our products. So this gives us like great confidence in terms of like, first, the product's safe. It's not like causing toxicity or inflammation, and it's actually driving the markers in the right direction. So we want to decrease aging markers, inflammatory markers. And increase collagen, hyaluronic acid, elastin, and so on. What is really interesting as well is that we can test any product that, that's in the market, and we can actually distinguish the products that are good or bad from our skins because they can tell us much better than we can tell, you know, when you just apply a product on your face. So if a product's not clean, or I would say doesn't use like good ingredients, the skin will start to that generate, and it's really impressive to see this with like really expensive and like best-selling anti-aging products. So I do recommend everyone that's like listening to this, I bet, you know, your audience is very educated, but take a look at the ingredients and make sure that every single ingredient is safe. And I think a way that you can do that is either like using For example, websites such as EWG that they rank all the ingredients in terms of safety. And from there you can already like guess if that product is good for your skin or not. But we have confirmed this, that again, a product that's not clean can be more detrimental than good for your skin. So sometimes better not to use anything that puts something that's bad on your face. And then the second piece of our platform is that we can actually quantify the skin biological age, right? So we created this algorithm called like MoleClock, and MoleClock was the first algorithm specifically designed to measure skin biological age. So it has the highest accuracy in predicting skin biological age. So we use that algorithm to quantify the effects of our products or again, any given molecule that we want to test and measure if that product's, you know, it's being able to reverse or I don't know if sometimes if the product's accelerating aging. So that's a way that we can again validate in the lab how our products are working before we actually bring it to the market. And then the third piece is like the screening and testing, like different combinations of actives So we do have our proprietary peptide, but in the end, we are combining our peptides with other actives that will work in combination to enhance all the benefits that we can provide to the skin. So for now, we've been mostly focused on, you know, face and products for the skin, but we are just starting to research a new area that's associated adjacent to skin, and it's obviously related to aging. That's hair loss. So we are testing new combinations of actives with our peptide, and we are going to evaluate if this new combination can slow down, potentially reverse hair loss, since there are like many studies actually showing the connection of senescent cells with the hair loss. Process.

That's really, really big. I know so many people, women and men alike, right, that are worried about this. And as you age as well, they lose that sort of volume and thickness. So that's really exciting as well, Carolina.

Yeah. And I think again, that's the beauty of going to direct to this source of aging, right? Like targeting this mechanism, senescent cells, that is involved in different diseases and conditions. That we experience. So obviously skin and hair, like, are the first ones that we are targeting, but there is a possibility to actually apply this peptide to treat other organs and potentially systemically as well. So being a longevity company is so exciting because, I mean, aging and longevity is such a fascinating field. And I think the more that we understand about the biology of aging and, you know, where we should intervene to actually promote the aging reverse, so slow down this aging process, we can have so many positive implications. So a lot more to come.

Really exciting. And also just with proving that it reduces inflammation in the body, which triggers so many other diseases as well. So I think for many, they overlook the power of actually maintaining really good skin in order to maintain really good overall health. Because if it's inflamed, there's other issues going on as well. So that's really, really exciting. Carolina, what excites you most, would you say, in the longevity space in general, obviously around skin as well, for what's going to be happening over the next years?

Yeah, I mean, there's so much that's happening in the past, I would say 5 to 10 years, right? So if you see how science is accelerating, in discoveries, new avenues to come up with like therapies and preventative therapies, right? So definitely I think this field of longevity is still in its infancy. And right now, for example, OneSkin is the first company actually to bring a product that contains a senotherapeutic molecule. But we will see a lot more companies now with like clinical studies actually developing therapies Or that can be both, like for people that are suffering for a specific disease, because that's how they are going to get the FDA approval. But eventually, I think people will be able to use that treatment off-label to actually prevent and boost your health. So Wonderskin is also investing in that area in terms of what other conditions we can help. And one of the areas that we are really excited excited as well is fertility. Obviously, as you know, fertility is one of the symptoms that really declines fast with aging. And actually, in our case, the studies that we're doing is not exactly about extending fertility in women. We are testing how our peptide can increase the viability of eggs after they Frozen and thaw for like, you know, IVF, for in vitro fertilization, because we know that right now women need to freeze around like 15 eggs to actually get one egg to potentially generate an embryo. So this is a huge, I would say, challenge for a lot of women, including myself, that it's on this age that, you know, you need to take some action, but at some point your chances are very low. So we are testing the peptide in how it could help again increase the viability of eggs after this, you know, thawing process. And then the other piece would be testing how the peptide could help the fertilization process because you have two steps. One, you need the eggs viable after thawing. Second, you need them to be fertilized and generate an embryo. And for that also, sometimes the rates of success cells are really low. So we are doing tests primarily in bovine now to understand if this peptide can increase viability of eggs and increase the rate of fertilization and generating new embryos, which, you know, even if we initially have application more on the animal bovine area, and I think that's already like a very interesting fact. But then eventually translating to humans would be incredible.

Exciting.

Are you in touch with Jennifer Garrison on this as well?

Yes, we are. We are about to share some of this new data with her. So we're just finalizing this experiment that we are running. But yeah, super fan of her work and, you know, definitely excited that someone is super outspoken about such an important issue.

Yeah, no, it's amazing. This would be really phenomenal. I think as women decide and choose to have children later, it's just not being impacted then by fertility issues as well. And having that flexibility is just so powerful. So I wish you a lot of luck with that.

Thank you.

Carolina, for my listeners interested in understanding skin aging and longevity better, what are some online resources and books you would recommend starting with?

I mean, in terms of skin aging, I think we share so much on our website or blogs and also in our newsletters. So I do recommend signing up for our newsletters because a lot of times they are much more informative and, you know, educational than, you know, sharing products. So we love and it's part of our mission. And even beyond the skin, we like to share other kind of longevity content. Follow us on social media. Our Instagram is also very, you know, informative. And we also have an events page on our website that sometimes we host events and we discuss about, again, the science of aging, longevity, a lot of this cool stuff that you also talk about. But yeah, it's— I think you can find a lot of information on our site. So oneskim.co.

That's C O. And the same for the social media handles as well. Carolina, do you have a final ask, recommendation, or any parting thoughts or message for my audience?

We now are in this moment that we have access to this information and we have the power to act and to choose what we are doing in our daily lives. And the more that we understand we understand and learn about biology, the more that we know that we have control of it. So we have this power in our hands and it's up to us kind of, you know, make the right choices. And I really appreciate what you do for this community because you are allowing them to have the knowledge to make the right choices. And it's super important that we spread this word around us. Because aging is still seen as, you know, kind of a default, like, down road path, and it doesn't need to be that way. So I think the more people that, you know, can take action and can actually show that no matter your age, you can be 50, 60, 70, 80s, and you can be rocking it. You can be, you know, driving, you can be so active. I think this is our obligation, you know, we needed to be advocates of this power that we have in order to change it, the outcome later, right? We don't want to experience years of suffering and pain and so much more that we accept as like the normal aging process. So, you know, science is here. There is so much that you can do on your lifestyle. There are products, there are treatments, there are interventions. So invest some time to educate and make that right choice. And this will definitely pay off, you know, in a very near future.

And for the long term as well.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But you can see in the near future the benefits already. Exactly.

Exactly.

Carolina, thank you so much for coming back on today. It was so wonderful seeing you again, and I'm so excited for what you've produced over the last few years, but also the pipeline, what you have ahead with all these exciting clinical trials.

So wishing you much success. Thank you so much, Claudia.

Awesome being here. Hi everyone, this is Claudia again. Before you take off, would you like to get a short email from me with some short but sweet fun tips, tricks, and updates on all things longevity and lifestyle? This could be cool products that I've discovered, interesting posts or articles I've read, and other fun and helpful things around longevity and lifestyle I've found for you. It's a very short piece of inspiration for you a few times a month. So if you want to receive it, check it out by going to longevity-and-lifestyle.com.

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