The Secret of Radiant Younger Skin for Longer with Dr. Carolina Reis

Good day to you, dearest listeners. Claudia von Boeselager here. Welcome to the Longevity and Lifestyle Podcast, where I invite pioneers and thought leaders in all things longevity and lifestyle to give us the strategies, tools, and practices to live better and help us reach our highest potential. Today's guest is Carolina Raisso-Levieda, co-founder and CEO of OneSkin, a biotech company developing solutions to target skin aging at the molecular level and extend the healthy years of life. Carolina is leading the development of the first anti-senescence topical product designed to promote skin health, which can be bought on their website, oneskin.co. Carolina is a co-inventor of 3 patents, co-author of numerous scientific publications, and has been an advocate of skin health in the longevity community. Carolina holds a biochemistry degree and a PhD in stem cell biology and is an alumnus of IndieBio, the world's leading biotechnology accelerator. She relocated to Silicon Valley from Latin America in 2016 to co-found OneSkin. In this episode, we talk about the importance and correlation of skin inflammation and chronic disease, the surprising truth about retinol, using the epigenetic profile of our tissues as a marker to understand if an intervention is really improving our skin on the cellular and molecular level, successful morning routines dedicating our lives to serving others, the importance of a positive attitude towards life, using key peptide molecules to eliminate senescent cells, making you look and feel 10 years younger, the science behind OneSkin, and understanding skin longevity trends, and much more. Please enjoy.

Carolina, it's a pleasure to welcome you today to the Longevity and Lifestyle Podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here as well.

So I'm excited to dive into how you and the team are revolutionizing skin health for longevity at OneSkin, and I'm delighted to help get your story out there for how men and women can rejuvenate the largest organ of the body, our skin. But first, I'd love to start with your mission at OneSkin and how this includes, and I quote, We believe there's no reason you can't be dancing on a table at 80 years young, which I love. One of my life goals is to be out dancing at 94. So this really resonated with me. Can you tell us briefly about OneSkin and what your mission is?

Sure. As a scientist, we always want to use science to allow people to have more quality of life and to improve their health. And as a person, I like to enjoy every second of my life. To me, I don't agree that we should accept aging, you know, and the limitations that comes with aging to prevent us doing the things that we love doing. So our mission is really how we can use science to empower people, to allow people to be doing things that they love. At whatever age, you know. So I love dancing, I love exercising, I love traveling, and the science and technology are evolving to allow us to keep doing those things as we age. So aging shouldn't stop us from doing anything, and the more science evolves, the more we are learning that it is a very malleable process that if we understand we can tweak it, we can really extend the time that we keep our bodies functioning well so we can continue to do the things that we love.

I love it. Yes. So I hope to see you on the tables.

I hope we dance together, right?

I'm up for it. I've even tried samba, but it's very difficult. After about 1 minute, I was like, whoa.

So respect.

Can you talk about the importance and correlation of skin inflammation and chronic disease?

Yes. This was something that was very interesting, even for me, when we started to study deeper about skin aging and the correlation with our overall health. Basically, we all know that the skin is our largest organ, right? But a lot of times we don't think of the implications that this organ has to our overall health. So skin is still— most people still look at your skin from an aesthetic and beauty perspective. But if this is our largest organ, it should have a more important function to our health in general. So it protects our body against microorganisms, infections, and water loss, and it's our main physical barrier. And with the aging process, we see a decay in our health and in our, in our cells' function. And we also see an increase of accumulation of damage and inflammation. Because this is such a large organ, even low levels of inflammation that are being produced by our skin can significantly impact our body's level of inflammation. So there is a very interesting study showing that as we age, our skin barrier weakens, and this causes the release of inflammatory signals to our body. And this can contribute to chronic diseases such as Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. So it's very interesting to think that if we can keep our skin healthy, if we can keep that skin barrier stronger, we may be able to prevent this inflammation to be released to our body and to prevent the onset of those detrimental diseases. So this was a connection that was not very obvious for me, and I'm sure that's not very obvious for a lot of people. No, that's why That's why when we think about skin health and the correlation with our general health, it's not only about your face, neck, and hands, right? It's about your whole body. So our mission is not only to keep our skin looking great, but to keep our whole body healthy, stronger, so we can prevent this inflammation of affecting our body's levels of inflammation.

Which really highlights the best-kept secret that you're not a skincare company, that you're a longevity company. And I think it's so interesting to point out that the most important organ— and people, I think, don't think about it as a barrier to inflammation and other diseases. You think of inflammation from the inside, but obviously it's a protective layer from the outside. So excellent that you're really addressing this. I'd like to move on to retinol, which many people will be familiar with. Retinol for the skin. It's been considered the gold standard. But I understand that your research has uncovered some very interesting things about retinol.

Can you tell us about it? Yeah, I also have a personal story too around retinol because I started using since I was a teenager. I had acne and I was used to be constantly peeling off. And later on, you know, when I was like 20-something, I continued to use because of its anti-aging effects. And I, again, I was peeling off all the time and thinking that I was doing the right thing to my skin. And once we started researching new molecules to rejuvenate the skin or to address the skin aging, we used retinol as a positive control, more specifically retinoic acid. That's the strongest version of retinol.. And what we saw was very interesting because the same effect that I was seeing in my skin, like a skin peeling off, we could see in the skins that we grow in the lab. So we could see very clearly the upper layers coming out and that cell renewal being promoted. But what we also saw that was not very expected is that the levels of aging genes, So some markers related to aging, such as P16 and other inflammatory genes like IL-6, IL-8, or metalloproteinases were going up. So things that are, you know, on the direction of aging and not the opposite was going up. And so, oh, that's not how we expect retinol to work. From that point on, I stopped using retinol. Because I basically realized, yes, when we are renovating our skin with retinol, we can induce some damage, some inflammation. It's very common. A lot of people have sensitivity, they get redness.

Burning skin.

Yeah. Yes. And with time, if we overuse this ingredient, we can exhaust our tissue basically. You only have so many stem cells to be replacing those cells that are being renewed. So my decision was completely to stop because I don't need to have side effects to have the good effects of retinol. And mainly after we developed our product, you know, I replaced by our product. But for people that still like retinol, usually what we recommend is not to use too often and also add a product that will counteract the, you know, side effects of retinol. So our products, for example, it helps lower inflammation, it helps like repairing the damage. So at least you don't have that damage being accumulated in your skin that in the long term can cause more harm than good. So you don't want to get, you know, at a very old age with a very thin skin that's more vulnerable, you have, you know, a weaker skin barrier because basically your tissue is exhausted, so you already caused like too much insult to your tissue. So that's the alternative that we are bringing for people that don't want to go to that route or can't go because of sensitive skin or so on. And it's safer. And based on our experiments, we also see a more significant effect in lowering the markers of aging.

So in theory, it's better to just stop retinol altogether. I mean, you're very diplomatic saying people should just reduce their use or counterbalance it. But in theory, if there is an alternative product now, which we'll get onto, but in essence, it's better to not actually use it, right?

Yeah, so the thing with retinol is that it can give you, I would say, a cosmetic effect in the short term. So some people are looking for that kind of benefits. Okay. For those people, yes, you can continue to use if that's your goal, but be aware that you can be causing some, you know, underlying damage. So that's why we suggest combining with our product. But for those that are more focused on the health of your tissue, then I would completely stop using retinol.

That makes sense. Exactly. Before we dive into all wonderful things around OneSkin, can you tell us a bit more about yourself, Carolina, and growing up as a free bird?

I'm originally from Brazil. I come from a very small town in Brazil, in the countryside of Brazil. And I left home when I was 15. I moved to another city to get a better high school education. And, you know, when I was growing up, my parents, they always like educated me to, you know, be very independent and to go wherever to pursue my dreams. So I have this memory of, you know, my dad almost saying that, oh, if I need to go to Japan, that's, you know, the farthest place from Brazil, you know, I should go if that's where I would fulfill my goals and my purpose. So I always have this, you know, growing up, and I think that's why I'm not afraid of anything, you know, moving to a place that I don't know anyone and starting from scratch. I've done this a few times in my life. The last time was when I moved from Brazil to the US 5 years ago to start this company. And I didn't know a single person here in the Bay Area. So everything was very new for me, very challenging in the beginning. But I have that drive that I know where I want to leave my mark in the world, where I can contribute more. And I felt that this was the best opportunity that I had. So I didn't think twice before making that choice. Yeah, and I mean, I'm very fortunate that my family always supported me. It's not easy, but it's very good when you have, you know, that you can count on them, you know, to give that support so you can, yeah, continue to pursue your dreams.

That sounds amazing that you have such a supportive family and also so visionary. It's not every father that tells his daughter, you can go to Japan, across the world to do whatever you need to do. So yeah. Well done. And I also hear that you share a very interesting family trait, one around an area important for longevity, namely sleep. Can you tell us more about that?

Sure. Yeah, that's a very funny trait because we have this ability to fall asleep everywhere. You know, it doesn't matter if it's like super noisy, whatever the location. Sometimes, you know, we all fall asleep. There was one One occasion that we, we went to a mass and we were all like seated at the same bench, and I looked to my parents, I looked to my brothers, everyone was like, you know, kind of the head hanging down.

Yes.

And this is in the morning, so you slept at night, or were you all out the night before?

No, this was usually— we used to go at 7 PM, so I think, I don't know, you're like walking around the whole day and the time that you and you stop.

And is it one of those, as my grandfather would call, 40 winks? So it's like a few minutes and then you're up again and you're fine. Is everyone passed out for an hour?

No, no, I'm like that. I'm just like, take a short nap and then I wake up and I'm ready to go out and dance, you know, to conquer the world again.

I love it. As my Spanish friend calls it, it's called the disco nap to get ready to go out.

Yes, exactly. And I mean, in the end, we are very fortunate because we don't have any problems to sleep. So I mean, there was only one time in my life that I had insomnia, that I was very kind of stressed out with the company. But in general, I feel very fortunate that I have like 8 hours sleep straight, kind of. So that's a blessing, you know, you feel your body completely like reset after that.

So you're definitely going to be dancing at 90 on tables with this rejuvenating sleep that you have. Lucky you. And another incredible part of the story, which I really, really love, especially around sort of female founders, but founders in general, that you are 4 Brazilian PhD co-founders at OneSkin. And I mean, Carnival must be the most fun time at OneSkin. I would think. How did this unique team come to pass? And you guys must be so close, right? Yes.

So I met one of my partners at college, Mariana. And then when I moved to another city and I joined this lab to do my master's and PhD, that's when I met Alessandra and Juliana. We always shared, I think, this common desire of translating science, bringing science out of academia to people. And we are always a little bit, you know, thinking out of the box I honestly didn't see myself pursuing the academic career. So I was kind of pulling, bringing everyone together.

The visionary.

I love it. Yeah. And then Mariana and Juliana, I mean, we were always brainstorming ideas together, how we could start, what kind of approach we could take with our science, with our knowledge. So we started back in Brazil. In 2014, and then we were combining our expertise initially to grow human tissues in the lab to replace animal testing. And then eventually, 2016, we had this opportunity to come to the US. So I came, they couldn't come because they were also professors and researchers in Brazil. So then I, I invited Alessandra to join me. Alessandra has She got her PhD in skin regeneration and we were at that point focusing on skin already. So Alessandra joined me and yeah, everything worked so well. Eventually we moved in together. We were afraid if this would work or not, like too much time working together and, you know, living together. But we had such a great connection, great bond, and Eventually we were doing everything together, you know, exercising, cooking, running.

That's incredible.

Yeah, all sorts of things. And yeah, it was a very— it's a partner that, you know, it's for life, you know. You're very blessed to have each other and the other girls as well.

That's so special and, you know, really rare, as you'll know, being in San Francisco and, you know, you hear about the disputes and disagreements between founders and it's really so rare that you can, you know, live, work together and spend your free time as well.

So, yeah.

Amazing. You mentioned there about working on replacing animal testing. Can you talk a bit more about what you were doing there and how successful that was?

Yes. So in 2014, we were finishing our PhD. My PhD was in stem cell biology and tissue engineering, more related to retina diseases. Juliana was working on cardiovascular diseases, so she was producing cardiomyocytes from stem cells. I was producing retina cells from stem cells. And Mariana was always more related to bioinformatics and genomics. And at that point, we saw— we were inspired by a company here in the US, Cellular Dynamics, that they were the first to start growing these cells, human cells in the lab. So if you want to develop a drug and if you want to test cardiotoxicity, it's much more reliable that you're testing a human cardiomyocyte than you're testing rats or dogs. And this is much more effective. So we saw an opportunity to bring that technology to Brazil. Eventually, what we saw that in Brazil, the pharmaceutical industry doesn't innovated that much to absorb that kind of technology or this type of cells. But the cosmetic industry was being pushed by the population to really ban animal testing. So we knew that in Europe it's already been like for many, many years. In the US, it's still kind of a gray area. But in Brazil, in 2014, there was a huge movement to stop testing in animals, and we could basically offer human skins to this industry to test their products. We also realized that the Brazilian market was not big enough to really justify this company in Brazil. Also, the biotech ecosystem at that point was not well developed. You know, it was not easy to get investment. So that's when we got the opportunity to come to IndieBio in 2016. And here we decided to focus on skin and eventually not only providing the human tissues, but we, we started to see where we can offer a value that no one else is offering. So not only providing the tissues, but we saw, for example, this anti-aging market really booming. It's a massive market, but consumers are still lost, right? Which products work, which don't? So how we can help validating the efficacy of those products? So in order to develop a process that would validate if those products work or not, we start to study a lot about aging, aging biology, And our first thought was, if we can measure the age of the tissues that we grow in the lab, then we can test a product and then we can see if that product is changing the age of that tissue. And we know that we can do that by reading the DNA. So, you know, the methylation, the epigenetic profile of our tissues and our cells, they are correlated with chronological age and they are the best marker to let you know an intervention is working on the cellular and molecular level. So that's how we started testing products to see if they would affect the skin biological age so we could quantify the effect of those products. And eventually what we found out that, okay, all of these are anti-aging products, but they are not really targeting aging. They are trying to make your skin to look better. They are trying to give you like a temporary solution, but they are not addressing the main cause of aging. And on the other hand, we saw so much going on on the longevity field, and a lot of companies is starting to really target those underlying mechanisms. And we thought, why no one is doing something on that area related, applied to the skin? And we basically combined these two expertises to develop our product and our technology.

I'm really excited to dive into all the details around OneSkin. So incredible what you guys are working on. But before we dive in, I'd like to just ask you a few rapid-fire questions to figure out the full picture of the wonderful Carolina. Do you have any particular morning routines to start your day as a success?

Yeah, I love routines. I love my morning routines. So in the morning, I— first thing that I like to do is to meditate at least for like 10, 15 15 minutes. I try to clear my mind. I set my intentions for the day. Yeah, I don't like wake up and start like running around.

It's the morning priming, I guess, as well. Is there a particular type of meditation that you do?

I, I already used some apps. I liked a lot Calm, you know them?

Yeah. Yes.

And today I have my own, I would say, how can I say, my protocol. I, I go to a series of appreciating things and then thinking about the things that I want to accomplish that day. So yeah, today I do my own meditation, but from time to time I use some app. Then after that, I, if I have time, I like to read a little bit in the morning because I think it's the time that also things are more quiet, so I can make sure that I have some reading time. And then I go to exercise for an hour. So I like to get sweaty and get that heart pumping and kind of wake up all my body and cells. So when I come back, I shower, I have, you know, my protein smoothie and coffee, and I'm ready for the day.

What time do you get up at in the morning to get all that done?

Yeah, around like 5:45, 6:00 AM.

So you're an early riser and you get your 8 hours of sleep. Sleep, as we know, so you go to bed nice and early. Amazing. Who would you consider the most successful person of all time and why?

Wow, that's a very interesting question.

Who comes to mind first?

Well, it's interesting. I— some names came to my mind from the techie field, you know, like Steve Jobs was such a revolutionary person, uh, and of course Elon Musk and all these forward-thinking people. But I think in the end I thought about my father. My father, I think what I can call it very successful that he created in our surroundings, you know, where I was raised. Unfortunately, he passed away 2 years ago.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Thank you. But when this happened, I couldn't really see how much people appreciated everything that he has done. So it was almost like a beautiful ceremony because everyone came so grateful and bringing so much support to us. And to me at that time, I realized what do we do in our lives, what we leave, that legacy, it's what people will remember, right? Like how much we are touching people's lives. And a lot of times, like not waiting or asking for anything in return. So I think to me, if we dedicate our lives to serve others, I think we will be the most successful person that we can be.

I love that. That's so beautiful, Catalina. Thank you for sharing that story. I'm also very curious. You seem so happy and upbeat, and I would love to know more. We talked about sleep, but what contributes to this high energy and happiness? You talked about your morning routine, but do you have any other particular routines and strategies that you use to cultivate this happiness and upbeatness?

I like to be around people that, you know, are also like that or even more than that. So my partner, he's super high energy and laughing. We have a very funny joke that our laughs are, you know, the funniest one because we laugh super loud. So. We loved laughing. Alessandra, that's my co-founder, she's also someone that's like super high energy and there is no bad time for her. I always call her like, this girl is always on fire because she's always— and in general, I always had always this positive attitude towards life. I think of course life will bring us some hard times, but It's all about how we respond to those challenges, right? And so I choose always to not let, or to do my best to not let those situations to impact my humor or my mood. And I always try when I see that I'm a little down, I always try to think about the things that I'm blessed and grateful for. So I kind of, you know, recover that optimism and that—

those are amazing tools. Yeah, it's so important. And more and more that I look into it, the opposite of depression and sadness is actually gratitude. It's not happiness. And really getting that feeling of gratitude as well and having a gratitude practice is so important as well. So thank you for sharing that. So now to jump into the exciting work at One One Skin. We talked a bit about the journey, but I'm actually going to quote Peter Diamandis, who is an advisor to you, and he said, "Katalina and her team are using key peptide molecules to eliminate senescent cells, making you look and feel 10 years younger." So what exactly is the science behind what you're developing at One Skin? And can you explain for non-scientists, what is a peptide? What are senescent cells and why this is so key for healthy skin longevity. Sure.

So let's think about the aging process. Age is nothing more than the accumulation of damage in our cells, in our tissues. So we were born, we are constantly exposed to different types of stress and damage. You know, this could come from our diet, from the UVB radiation, pollution, and so on. When we are younger, we are able to repair that damage or we are able to basically eliminate the cells that are not functioning well. When we grow older, we lose a little bit of that efficiency in terms of DNA repair. And these aged or damaged cells, also called senescent cells, they start to build up in our tissues. The problem is that the senescence state is in fact a tumor preventative mechanism, because if those cells that are damaged, if they continue to replicate, this could cause a cancer. But the problem when they build up in our tissues is that they start secreting inflammatory signals that basically induce other cells around that are healthy to become senescent.

Senescent.

So we call it the bad apple effect because one bad apple really ruins all the basket. The senescent cells, they work similarly. So this inflammation that starts to spread in our tissue leads to tissue dysfunction that is associated also with several age-related diseases. So most of the diseases that we are trying to treat today they are associated with the accumulation of senescent cells. So one of the strategies that, you know, several companies is using is by targeting senescent cells to eliminate them, to clear them out from our tissue, or to prevent the formation of senescent cells so we can keep our tissues healthier longer. So OneSkin, when we realized that this was a very interesting approach to promote tissue rejuvenation and to maintain the health of our tissues, we decided to search for new molecules that would target or eliminate senescent cells. So we have screened over thousands of peptides. So what is a peptide? A peptide is basically a piece of a protein. So a protein is formed by a sequence, a chain of amino acids, and a peptide It's a sequence that's lower than 50 amino acids, and they have biological functions. They can, you know, they can bind to receptors, they can promote the activation of some pathways or the deactivation of another pathways inside our cells. So we screened peptides that were able to reduce the burden of senescent cells. So first we found, okay, they can reduce up to 40% the amount of senescent cells in our skin cells, in our tissues. Now, how these peptides do that? Let's try to understand what we call the mechanism of action. And one experiment that really helped us to answer, I would say, you know, part of this question is when we exposed skin cells to UVB radiation. So this is one of the ways that we can induce cellular senescence. That means that we can induce healthy cells to become super damaged that they stop dividing, so they are now senescent cells. When we induce that damage and right after we treat with our peptide, we see that we prevent almost 50% of the accumulation of senescent cells. So what we are inducing is our cells' ability to repair the damage caused by the UV radiation. So you don't get to form the senescent cells because your cells were, you know, efficient making sure that we repair that damage. So this is one way that our peptide works, by increasing our DNA repair capacity. So we are better prepared to fight the stress that we are, you know, dealing in our daily lives. And now we are studying if we can also eliminate some of the senescent cells that are already formed in our tissues. So we have some hypotheses that we could be inducing autophagy and other longevity pathways, but this is still going on. So I will have more to share in the next months. But in a nutshell, that's what our peptide does.

Would you say that your product is better targeted at a certain age group, or is it really for any age groups?

So one thing that we can clearly see in our experiments and also, you know, from our personal lives, that's easier to prevent than to reverse or to repair, right? So the earlier that we start, and of course you don't need to start with, you know, 15, but, you know, around 25, we see that after 30s there is a huge shift in terms of protein and gene expression related to aging. So if we can prevent that shift, that, you know, it's not— it doesn't happen like, you know, overnight. So if we can start treating and protecting your skin, you know, when our skin is still healthy, that's the best time to start. Also, there is one very effective product that we should use, you know, during our whole life. That sunscreen, right, is one of the best ways that we can also prevent damage. But in terms of something that's not only protecting against the sun damage but also helping your cells to function properly, our product really helps in that sense. And then once you start using the product and you see that you are getting benefits, another thing that I can say by my personal experience, that the longer you use, the better you see the effect. So the product works by penetrating to your skin, helping your skin to be more effective and changing the makeup of the skin from within. This takes some time, and that's why, you know, with more time you are going to see progressive effects. So if you like the product, if it works well for you, it's also something that you should use for the rest of your life because Aging is the default process. We should basically do everything that we can to, you know, keep ourselves functioning well so we can keep the good look of our skin.

To stop it in its tracks.

Exactly.

Is it just for face or is it also for the back of the hands or for the full body? Or where do you recommend using? And the product is OS-01, right, that you have on the market?

Yes. Initially we are marketing it for face, neck and hands. The areas that are more exposed, sun-exposed, and usually it's where we perceive faster the signs of aging. But you can use in the whole body if you want. We are developing a product for the body because again, it makes sense to treat your whole body if we're talking about longevity from a holistic point of view. So that's, you know, our next product that is coming later this year. But definitely we, we want to treat our skin as a whole, not only parts of our skin.

Okay. Amazing. You talked a bit about the scientific validation and studies you've done, and you also have several patents and publications. Can you talk a bit about the validations that have been done and why this is really so revolutionary?

Sure. So as I said, we spent almost like 5 years and we are still doing research and our research will never stop. This mission that now that we have developed one product to promote, you know, skin rejuvenation or to fight skin aging, and our mission is to always keep improving the efficacy of that product. So we want to be launching, you know, a line of, you know, 10 products, but we'll be working on our one product to make it always more effective and to have the most effective product to fight skin aging in the world. So that's our mission.

I love it.

Yes.

Yeah.

So we spent a few years developing a platform that would replicate skin aging in the lab. Then we developed— so we have a patent on this platform to test product, to see how products can affect the skin at the molecular level. Then we developed an algorithm that measures the skin biological age. So we were inspired by Horvath's clock that was one of the first to correlate the methylation profile with your chronological age. So use this as a system to validate the effect, you know, of a single ingredient or of a product in our skin. So we are even running a clinical study study, the participants, they will be using our product for 6 months to 1 year. And at the end of 6 months, we will collect the biopsy because we still need a piece of skin to measure this, the biological age of the skin. So we're going to collect the biopsy and we can see, we can measure in humans how much we are, you know, changing the biological age of the skin. So this will be something very unique for, you know, this industry and this market, and we are very excited about that. Yeah. So we have another patent on this molecular clock because there were other clocks focusing on different tissues, or Harvard also developed one focused on skin and blood, but there was no clock that was specifically designed to measure skin biological age. We know that the tissue specificity really influences the accuracy of the clock. So we published a paper on that, and then we also have a patent. And the third piece of our platform is the screening process and how we got to this peptide that we also have a patent on the sequence and also its effects related to cellular senescence and other aging markers. And we also wrote paper that's now under review on a peer-reviewed journal, but it's also available on a preprint version at bioRxiv. So we want to be able to share a little bit of what we are doing so people can understand better how the product was developed and what's the science behind.

That's so exciting, and I love the fact that you're sharing also the science. Do you see that there's a trend in interest in the science behind materials?

I definitely see that. I think there is a community that's already very engaged in longevity, in science. There is also the biohacking community that, you know, wants to really understand everything behind, you know, the products and technology that can help them, you know, to optimize their health. And I think the general, the mainstream consumer is also getting more and more interested in the science, mainly after COVID. We needed to learn more about how our immune system works, you know, what's good for us and how we can be better prepared to fight those infections. And people really appreciate when we bring them not only content to help educating them, but also they appreciate it when they really see that, you know, it's a science-based company.

I love it. And I love that you have a glossary as well on the website to explain explain different terms and things to really help educate people as well.

Yeah, I, I have even a funny story, uh, because I bought one of those kits to measure my own biological age. And when I went to the post office to drop this package, and on the COVID of the package was written, how old are you really? There is a question, you know, how old are you really? And then the guy said You don't know how old you are. I love people like they have no idea that, you know, there is chronological age and biological age. So I mean, everyone knows how old they are. No, you don't know how old you are.

I hope you were able to educate him that you were reading New Ages for Skin. Amazing. I love it. That's funny. What other key trends are you seeing in the longevity space in general, especially sitting there in San Francisco? And where do you think we'll all be in 2 to 5 years' time?

So one interesting trend that I have seen, and I think it's very positive, it's more companies bridging the science to consumers. So I've seen more and more companies around supplements really connecting the dots of the science to specific ingredients that can help target the underlying cause of aging. So this is very positive. I think we need more and more companies that are really science-backed. Another thing that I've seen, you know, companies that help you to quantify your current state of health, right? So not only your biological age, as we were talking, but also, you know, your levels inflammation and other markers that can help you to really understand what's going on inside. I think this trend that we will be owning our data and watching our data closer, this will definitely help us to prevent disease, to make interventions earlier. So I definitely think this is a positive change. And another change that I see upcoming in the future is the development of more preventative therapies. So right now, unfortunately, FDA is still like only approves to target a specific disease, but I see that in the future there will be a push for us to develop therapies that we will start like taking after 30s, 40s when we are still in good health. So we don't need to get to our 60s in their 60s and 70s with several detrimental diseases. So yeah, I think everything that we are seeing, this science in terms of understanding better and in terms of finding ways to apply that science in a way that's safe to our consumer, to our patients, I think this will definitely have a huge impact in our health.

And I find it so exciting. I had another podcast interview. I don't know if you've come across Dr. Dale Bredesen, who with his team at Apollo Health have come up with a protocol for reversing cognitive decline. My mother's actually on his ReCODE program, and I really like the way he formulated it. You know, he's a trained doctor in the U.S., and it was all about the diagnosis. What does somebody have? Okay, we give the prescription. And 21st century medicine is all about actually getting to the cause. What is the driver behind it? And actually addressing the cause. Which is completely what you're also doing at OneSkin, of analyzing the tissues and what's happening there and supporting then the rejuvenation with the peptide. Right. And I think it's so exciting to see this really seismic shift that's starting to take place through science, through work that you're doing and Dr. Bredesen and others in this space to bring awareness, the data-drivenness as well, to prevent so many diseases from, you know, Alzheimer's, cognitive decline, type 2 diabetes, Dr. Jason Fung, getting patients off type 2 diabetes medication in a few months. All this suffering is becoming so unnecessary, which is just so exciting. So yeah, this is why I have the podcast. Yeah, these exciting topics.

And I think this is so important, you know, to get this word out to more people because at the moment that we are aware that we can do things about that, there are options, there are products and technologies that can can help you to understand what's going on in your body and how we can intervene earlier, we'll be allowing everyone, you know, to not get to that state of health decline. And that's why I'm also very optimistic about the future, because I think in the future this will only grow and we'll have more and more options to help us to get there.

Exactly. So that we can be dancing on the tables, right? And enjoying life and not suffering. So I'm excited about it too. Carolina, how has an apparent failure set you up later for success? Do you have maybe any favorite failures?

I think, well, I think the fact that the company was not doing so well in Brazil was one failure that allowed us to search for new ways to keep the dream alive, to keep the company company alive. So at the moment that we saw, you know, oh, there is an accelerator that focuses on biotech and they help scientists to become entrepreneurs and it is in Silicon Valley, everything like made so much sense because I, I realized that we would find, you know, the right help and, you know, the right ecosystem to, to make it happen. And of course, during this process of developing the company, there were a lot of ups and downs. At some presentations that I was doing, I got some very harsh feedback that could really put me down. But at the same time, every time that someone gave me harsh feedback or they were not believing in what I was doing, that worked to me as a fuel to, you know, to show that I can do better. My goal was not like to prove you wrong, but I can show that I can definitely overcome that. So to me, anytime that someone, you know, didn't believe in what we were doing in our company, that didn't affect me personally in terms of, you know, I don't feel that I'm not good enough, but I'm going to keep doing my best. And eventually I know that this has prepared me for the tough times that will, will come, you know, in this journey. There won't be like an easy path, but I will be better prepared to deal with those situations because of, you know, the challenge that I have faced so far. So the first year that I came here to the US was definitely the hardest and the toughest and the most challenging one. And I remember by the end of that year, I really acknowledge all the challenges and everyone that made my life harder because they made me a better and stronger person.

So amazing. It's so good to share that as well because I think, you know, some people are scared to go into entrepreneurship. They're going to be challenges with this, that, and the other. And I think, as you said yourself, it's the mental mindset to say, you know what, I'm not going to take it personally. It's good to be challenged. And actually, I think otherwise, so I'm going to prove that. So that's amazing, and that was only in one year. So well done for having that whole journey.

Yeah, I mean, that's not the hardest year, and then of course the following years we have of course some good and tough moments, as it is, you know, the entrepreneurial journey.

Yeah, exactly, the ups and downs. But you're still smiling, so that's a, that's a good thing. Carolina, what's been your most exciting purchase in the last 6 months?

Last 6 months, exciting purchase, because I want to be a little bit more aware of what's going on in my body. So I want to make sure that I can measure my biological age and I can measure some interventions. So I think this biological age kits, they are exciting because I'm learning more about myself. Last year I tried the GlycanAge. Have you heard about the GlycanAge?

Is that the continuous glucose monitor or which one?

No, the GlycanAge is a way that you can measure your biological age through glycans that bind to our IgGs. So it's related to your immune system health. Founded by a company that's in the UK. It's called GlycanAge.

GlycanAge. Thank you for pointing it out. I'm going to check them out.

The founder is Nicolina. She's, you know, an amazing founder and woman. Yeah, you should definitely talk to her.

For sure. Perfect. I'm going to link it in the show notes also for all the listeners as well. Can you explain how it works?

So yeah, basically they measure the levels of glycans that are, you know, accumulated on your IgG. So it's related to the health of your immune system, because with aging, we tend to have more IgGs with glycans. So they can make this correlation. That's a different marker to measure your biological age. It reflects more your, I would say, your current state of inflammation. So a lot of things that we can do can affect our inflammation very easily. And I believe that this is a better marker while methylation takes a little longer longer to really change. Even if you change something on your, I would say, on your daily habits, it will take more time to reflect on your levels of methylation. So I had the opportunity to try it, like, an age, and now I bought another one that's more based on methylation. So I like it to be able to track, you know, to understand a little bit more about my health so I can make some interventions and measure this in a few months to see if I'm getting younger. So my goal is always to, you know, go biologically younger.

You're going to be like, what was it, the interesting case of Benjamin Button?

Yeah. I don't think I can go that further.

But, you know, one thing I actually tried recently is from Levels Health.

Have you heard of them?

No. So they're in Silicon Valley as well, and they use the continuous glucose monitor which you wear to actually check daily your metabolic score. So they have a really excellent interface in the app. I've tested it as well, and it's so interesting because it's totally customized, right? So it's my glycemic and my insulin response to sweet potato soup is— might be completely different to the next person. So I'm thinking it's really great and it's amazing for me, but actually no, my insulin is just peaking on it. And you get a daily metabolic and you see each food and you can compare different foods.

It's really, really cool. I think this should be my next acquisition because that's also something that I want to track is know how my insulin levels are responding to different type of food.

Yeah. You have to check it out. Levels Health. It's really great. Carolina, do you have a favorite quote or piece of advice received that was a real game changer for you?

Yes, I have this quote that I think I need to check the quote, but it's from Rocky Balboa. You know, it's not about how hard life hits you, but how much are you able to be hit and still get up and keep fighting, you know? Yeah. So you can probably read it for you.

And I've heard it before. I wouldn't remember it either, but I love it. So you, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life, but it ain't about how hard you you're hit, it's about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward. So exactly, it's, it's rolling with the punches, as they say, and, you know, picking yourself up again, dusting yourself off and continuing. So I love that. That's really great. Carolina, to finish up with a few points, are there any books or resources you can recommend for people looking to better understand skin longevity and skin health?

Yeah, unfortunately we don't have a book specifically on skin longevity. For longevity in general, I recommend Lifespan from David Sinclair. It can be very technical, but you can skip some parts if you're not into the weeds. But I think it's a great book and also brings a very, I would say, optimistic view of, you know, what the future holds for us. And for skin health I would suggest to read our blog posts and follow us on social media or on our website. We really love sharing a lot of content that will help educating people in terms of what they can do to improve their skin health. And also subscribe to our mailing list because, you know, on our mailing list we also share a lot of content.

Say exactly the website, your web domain, and your social media handles.

Our website is oneskin.co and our Instagram is also @oneskin.co and our LinkedIn probably is only Oneskin or maybe Oneskin Technologies.

One of both, but they'll find you under Oneskin. Exactly. Catalina, do you have any parting thoughts or message for my audience?

I think My main message is that, yeah, we are the owners of our destiny, and the choices that we make today will really determine how we are gonna age. So we have the freedom, we have the ability to educate ourselves, to make the right choices today. We shouldn't be waiting for the magic pill, and this life. It's fun to go to some efforts and to exercise and, you know, to kind of, you know, build your muscles, but, you know, build your strength and to cook your own food and to really be aware of the things that you are putting in your body. And of course, you know, cultivate good thoughts and try to manage stress. But all of those small decisions they will build up and they will pay off in the future. And with more products and technology that are coming to help us, this will really allow us to build a future that we are all enjoying life as we grow older or grow younger, right?

I love it. Wonderful words, Carolina. Thank you so much for joining today. It's been such a pleasure.

Thank you, Claudia. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Hi everyone, this is Claudia again. Before you take off, thank you so much for listening to the podcast today. I hope you learned as many valuable insights on living better for longevity as I did. I'd love you to join our longevity tribe so we can learn and grow together, as well as hear your feedback. So please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review to let me know what you thought. Thanks so much and take care.