Meet the experts: Frederic de-Baene, Research and Development Director – Croda Beauty Actives

Can you tell us about your career in biotech and what your role as Research and Development Director for Croda Beauty Actives involves? 

My whole career has been rooted in biotech, even though I now lead R&D for our Active Ingredients division. Over the years, I’ve worked with plant cell cultures, produced enzymes, used micro-organisms for wastewater treatment, and developed new ingredients using microalgae. 

I started working on biotech innovations for beauty when I joined Croda’s actives business in France, Sederma, in 2011 to develop bioactives for cosmetics.  I managed R&D and production, sustainability and the sourcing of genetic resources in line with biodiversity rules and laws for 11 years.  

I moved to the UK to lead the biotech team at our Daresbury science and innovation campus and integrate new technologies, including engineering biology and biocatalysis. Now, I'm back in France managing R&D for our next generation of not only biotech, but all actives.  

What types of biotechnology does Croda use to create bioactive ingredients? 

At Croda, we have five specialist laboratories and different manufacturing sites. Our portfolio of biotechnologies and techniques includes plant cell culture, engineering biology, fermentation and biocatalysis.  

Our biotech experts in formulations, applications and testing all work together in terms of R&D. That’s important for developing an innovation mindset. It’s also very efficient.  

What parts of Croda's biotechnology tool set excite you the most? 

Four years ago, Croda integrated synthetic biology into our tool mix. The technology is linked to fermentation and allows us to modify microorganisms to produce molecules of interest.  

Nature has developed a set of very complex molecules that we often cannot reproduce with chemistry, but biotech processes make it a possibility. It’s not easy, but we can achieve things we couldn't do in the past.  

KeraBio™ K31 is Croda’s first ingredient created using synthetic biology. What is it, and what were the benefits of using this biotech process? 

KeraBio K31 was created by selecting a specific human hair keratin sequence to produce a highly potent, biotechnology-derived biomimetic peptide with hair bond building activity. 

Historically, chemical processes using animal-derived or non-identical proteins produced peptides. Using synthetic biology, we developed a bio-designed peptide that is human hair-identical and directly repairs and recharges the hair’s internal structure.  

Synthetic biology has been extensively used to produce pharmaceutical therapeutics. This was one of the first times it was used, by Croda to develop a cosmetic ingredient. KeraBio K31’s results are set to transform formulations and the hair care market, and we already have ideas for using this technology to create other types of molecules. 

Why do you think biotech ingredients are making the headlines in the beauty and skin care industry? 

Nature and sustainability are key drivers. With plant cell culture, you can take some leaves and develop cells that you can grow and use to produce molecules. . We’re not in competition with the food industry or agriculture, which makes our manufacturing and sourcing more sustainable. And consumers are increasingly seeking clean beauty, with nature-derived, non-animal products on the label. 

With synthetic biology and biocatalysis, it’s more feasible to direct production to the molecules you want. In traditional chemistry, if you want to produce a molecule, maybe you have two isomers. If only one is active, you decrease the potential of your active by two. 

In biotech, you can direct the process to produce the molecule of interest and target its activity and purity. This allows us to produce ingredients with new properties, which is exciting for the beauty space. 

What R&D qualities and expertise ensure that Croda leads and delivers personal care innovation that excites the market? 

1: Expertise 

Each of our biotechnology platforms and each technology has its own R&D and manufacturing experts. Biotech in Croda started in the 1960s/70s and was really pushed from the end of the 1980s, so we have around 40 years of expertise in this field. The teams are spread around the world, in Canada, Europe and Asia. 

2: An innovation mindset 

R&D stimulates marketing and sales, and marketing and sales stimulate R&D. There will always be a discussion between R&D and marketing to ensure any new ideas answer a business need. 

3: Feasibility from the outset 

Biotech regulations and laws, such as the Nagoya Protocol, are considered from the beginning. We will not work on an idea if it's not feasible to commercialise it in terms of regulation.

4: Commercial application  

We are not doing fundamental research. We’re doing applied research. We can develop the best molecule, the best ingredient, but if we cannot commercialise it, we don’t continue.

5: Industrial vision for agile scale-up 

We don't develop any ingredient without a manufacturing plan . As well as working with regulation and IP, our biotech R&D teams also visit manufacturing sites and partners because the process transfer phase is very important. Understanding the gap between paper knowledge and practical execution can reduce technical delays and help speed the innovation to market. 

New ingredients usually take 2-3 years to come to market - sometimes even longer when biotech is involved. KeraBio K31 was launched in a year. What skills did R&D employ to make that happen?

It was a mix of things. The marketing and sales teams had a strong focus on what the ingredient needed to do to meet the hair repair needs of the market. And we focused our research and development on meeting them.  

We knew the properties we wanted in terms of repair and sustainability, and storytelling. Synthetic biology provided us with good results, and AI helped us orient our search by highlighting specific points we needed to work on and ensuring we took one route and not another.  

There were also technical discussions with the biosynthesis, downstream processing, bioactivity and evaluation teams, so the ingredient’s nature was understood. This ensured the development of an effective ingredient and process in terms of bioactivity.  

This provided a perfect synergy of innovation and agility from lab R&D to commercialisation. And strong learnings for working together in the future.  

What changes will we see in the future for Croda’s biotech R&D and ingredients? 

You will see more sustainable and natural-based products. And we’ll be exploring these new technologies and their potential to develop new ingredients.  

Synthetic biology is in its second generation of ingredients. In a few years, we will be working on the third. We will be able to do more and have very targeted activity, with a specific molecule developed through these tools.