Team:XH-China/Description

KERATINASE SKIN EXFOLIATION

• Home
• Attributions
• Description
• Contribution
• Project
  Engineering Experiments Notebook
• Collaborations
• Human-practices
• Implementtation
• Model
• Entrepreneurship

The project’s inspiration and description

Why exfoliating masks?

Beauty and young is the final pursuit of human being. Especially in today's world, where material civilization is highly developed, people are willing to spend more money on beauty and health. Outlooking is the stepping stone to socializing in a civilized society and is essential for shaping the first impression. Appearance can not only please others, but also please oneself and enhance one's self-confidence. Therefore, excellent person will pay attention to his appearance as much as his own moral character. Skin is not only a protective barrier for the human body, but also an important carrier of human beauty. Therefore, the health, smoothness and tenderness of the skin are the goals that people continue to pursue with the help of various beauty products. Among them, facial mask is one of the most commonly used beauty products. According to the latest market survey data, the consumption of facial mask products has shown an increasing trend year by year.

Figure 1: Market trend chart of facial mask products

Regarding the facial mask, one of the most important functions is to exfoliate, so as to keep the skin smooth and delicate. Therefore, facial masks that claim to have exfoliating functions take a huge market share of facial mask products. How to achieve the exfoliating function of the mask, different masks use different methods. Mainly include physical adhesion, deep cleansing, and chemical drugs to inhibit skin cell keratinization. But above methods and mechanism show limited functions and large side effects. Therefore, development of brand-new exfoliating mask products are very valuable and new mask products will surely be acknowledged and accepted by the market.

Do people want to use the exfoliating products?

Figure 2: Poll about exfoliating product mask need

The stratum corneum is located in the outermost layer of the human skin. The main component is keratin, which can help people defend against the invasion of foreign substances and microorganisms. However, too thick stratum corneum will make people's skin color look dark, yellow and lack luster. In addition, the metabolic rate of the dermal cells of the skin is reduced, and the renewal and repair ability become weak, which is not conducive to skin health.

At present, the beauty products with exfoliating function in market are mainly based on the following methods and mechanisms:

1. Chemical exfoliating products represented by cleansing lotion-its main effect comes from salicylic acid or fruit acid. Salicylic acid is mainly used to dissolve the substance between the stratum corneum and the lower layer of skin, so that the horny layer will fall off and become thinner, so that the lower layer of new skin will be exposed to achieve a cosmetic effect. These products can cause skin damage, such as itching, erythema, and skin allergies.

2. Exfoliating products by physical issue represented by scrubs-fine granular substances are added to the product to peel off the keratin during the rubbing process. In fact, excessive or incorrect use of scrubs will hurt normal skin cells, leading to the destruction of the skin barrier, result to the invasion of pathogens such as external bacteria. At the same time, the skin is more susceptible to irritating gases and ultraviolet rays. Through surveys and interviews with customers, it was found that most people criticized the above-mentioned products.

Some facial problems after using physical or chemical exfoliating products

Figure 3: Current customer survey about exfoliating products

Therefore, we imagine to design and develop brand-new products to make it possible, by which to circumvent the defects of current exfoliating beauty products. In the human body's own life process, there is a process in which the old keratin components are removed. This biological process is safe and efficient. So can we imitate the biological process of its own metabolism to remove excess keratin? It is envisaged that through the design and development of a brand-new biological mask, it can remove excess keratin gently and safely without harming the skin. In the experimental design stage, we found that keratinase can degrade keratin. Through academic searching, we found that the keratinase produced by Bacillus licheniformis can efficiently digest keratin. With the help of genetic engineering, the above-mentioned keratinase gene was transferred into a suitable protein expression plasmid vector to express keratinase in a suitable host cell. Finally, the expressed active keratinase is added to the cream mask to make a biological mask product with degrading keratinase activity by the safe way.

Figure 4: Plasmid map figure we designed construct with pTrcHis2a with keratinase gene.

In this competition, we are preparing to make a keratinase exfoliating masks, using methods of synthetic biology to compound plasmids, and transform the plasmids into E. coli to express keratinase. After purifying and measuring the activity of keratinase, we put this purified keratinase into the skin exfoliation to complete our product. Through the framework of genetic engineering and the help of synthetic biotechnology, we can express keratinase successfully in E. coli.

Get to know our product

Figure 5: Keratinase Bio-mask design drawing

The mask is creamy, which makes it easier to use while increasing the portability. At the same time, this packaging design ensures the hygiene and safety of the product. Through research on a large number of facial mask products on the market, the market price of mainstream cream facial mask products is generally $2-5/100g. Due to our unique biological effects and safety, we price our products at $10-15/100g. The mask brush was also provided freely, to benefit taking mask without hand contamination. We believe that such a price will be very competitive, which will help product promotion and obtain better commercial benefits.

Reference：

1.https://www.statista.com/statistics/857414/global-facial-care-leading-market-by-country/

2,3 questionnaire and customer survey

4. Ramnani, Priya et al. “Keratinolytic potential of Bacillus licheniformis RG1: structural and biochemical mechanism of feather degradation.”

Canadian journal of microbiology vol. 51,3 (2005): 191-6. doi:10.1139/w04-123

5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/AY590140.1

Keratinase facial exfoliator