Key takeaways on Beiersdorf partnership with HIPS
- Beiersdorf has entered an exclusive research partnership with HIPS to study the role of the skin microbiome in maintaining healthy skin.
- The collaboration leverages extensive microbiome and genomic datasets originally generated for infectious disease research.
- The goal is to identify microbial natural products with potential skin care benefits and translate them into future innovations.
- Two funded research projects are already underway, with plans to expand the collaboration over time.
German beauty and personal care company Beiersdorf has partnered with the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) to investigate the role of the skin microbiome in maintaining healthy skin and to identify natural products produced by skin microorganisms that have a positive effect on skin balance. The project is based on extensive datasets on microorganisms that inhabit human skin.
The collaboration will work with data from HIPS and Saarland University, which includes information on the microbiome of both healthy individuals and patients with various diseases.
The data was originally collected to identify new active substances for the treatment of infectious diseases, but will now also be used to benefit the field of skin care.
Two specific projects in the field of skin microbiome research are currently planned and Beiersdorf is providing funding to carry out both projects.
Leveraging microbiome data to discover new skin care actives
“Microbiome research has a long tradition at Beiersdorf and remains an important area of research for strengthening our innovative power to this day,” explained Dr Gitta Neufang, Chief Research & Development Officer at Beiersdorf.
“With our exclusive partnership with HIPS, we are setting new standards: Together, we are laying the foundation for skin care products that support the skin’s natural balance and deepening our understanding of the role of microbial natural substances in maintaining healthy skin.”
Prof. Andreas Keller who is Head of the HIPS Department of Clinical Bioinformatics and spokesperson for the PharmaScienceHub, revealed that the organisation’s IMAGINE study, published in 2024, collected genetic data on the microbiomes of more than 500 test subjects in collaboration with Saarland University.
“This is a real treasure trove of data, as the genomes of the individual microorganisms that colonise us contain the blueprints for previously unknown natural products with a wide variety of properties,” he explained. “Together with our partners at Beiersdorf, we now want to filter out precisely those molecules that play a role in skin health and develop them into new products. The PharmaScienceHub offers us the perfect platform and the ideal scientific environment for this.”
Dr Sascha Baumann, Manager/Lab Head – Microbiological Category Support & Skin Health at Beiersdorf, added that results to date clearly show that microbial natural products and the underlying microorganisms and microbiomes play a key role in maintaining healthy skin conditions. “Together with HIPS, we want to translate these findings into new innovations,” he said.