A raw material produced by the University of Helsinki spinout Uute Scientific contains 13,000 microbial species and restores natural microbial exposure for urban residents through the skin.
If it were up to Kari Sinivuori, CEO of , all skincare products would have a biodiversity component, or one or more ingredients derived directly from the diversity of nature. A particularly abundant source of such compounds is the Finnish forest environment.
"All dairy products in the shop contain vitamin D. It's not a necessity, but it's beneficial because it enhances the absorption of calcium in milk. That's why manufacturers have decided to add vitamin D to their products," Sinivuori says.
He takes a similar view to skincare products. Urban living makes it difficult for people to establish a connection to nature, narrowing their body's microbiota. To remedy this, a biodiversity component added to skincare products exposes people to the natural world and microbes that have been proven to promote health.
This idea underlies Uute Scientific's vision: life without immune-mediated diseases. Sinivuori points out the importance of exposing our immune system to diverse microbiota. Otherwise it does not function properly.
Urbanisation has made many immune-mediated diseases, such as allergies, asthma and type 1 diabetes, increasingly common.
"If a skincare product can be used to provide this vast number of people with a solution, there must be something to it," Sinivuori says.
Re-Connecting Nature™, a microbial extract developed by Uute Scientific through university research, originates in Finnish nature. It can be mixed with creams and other skincare products.
The company's in-vitro studies on artificial skin and in-vivo tests on human skin have demonstrated that the extract boosts cytokines, or proteins that regulate immune responses, in the blood. Prior research supports this by showing the change measured in cytokines to be opposite to that associated with inflammatory responses.
In 2024 Uute Scientific completed a where the microbial extract was tested for treating the condition. The subjects who applied the extract to their skin during the study needed to resort significantly less to atopy drugs than those who used a placebo cream.
"Since then, we've received plenty of queries on where to get this substance. The challenge with cosmetic products is that you cannot claim any curative effects. We are nevertheless permitted to describe our raw material," Sinivuori says.
Microbial extract for the skin
Uute Scientific's microbial extract, entitled Re-Connecting Nature, is used in skincare products, creams in particular. The company does not produce skincare products, but offers a raw material containing 13,000 different microbial species to cosmetics manufacturers around the world. Luonkos, Medisoft and Nobe are among the companies that have adopted it in their products.
Discovered by and his research group at the University of Helsinki, the microbial extract was patented in 2015. The phenomenon was previously tested in the , carried out at the University of Helsinki and Tampere University and funded by Business Finland, where research groups investigated the effectiveness of biodiversity in reducing the incidence of immune system disorders at the population level.
In 2020, Kari Sinivuori's six-member team purchased the patent for the invention from the University of Helsinki and established Uute Scientific. Today, the company has 10 employees.
Solid foundation for commercialisation from the University
Sinivuori has studied industrial engineering and worked in the energy sector, rail transport and emissions trading. Before Uute Scientific he worked for five years at , the University of Helsinki's technology transfer and research commercialisation company, overseeing the assessment of and support for scientific innovations and projects in connection with commercialisation preparations.
Sinivuori sees specific opportunities in innovations stemming from academic research.
"The survival rate of startups, or the share of businesses still operating 10 years after their founding, is roughly 30%. For university-based startups, that ratio is markedly higher. Their products have been tested in state-of-the-art conditions before moving on to commercialisation."
The microbial extract too has undergone multidisciplinary testing, starting from being assessed as a medical invention. Since no active ingredient or individual molecule could be identified among the 13,000 microbial species, it did not proceed to drug development. The extract's effect comes from diversity unknown to conventional drug development.
"We are now looking for possibilities to establish a drug classification for the product as a whole to enable us to expand into drug development," Sinivuori says.
However, the microbial extract already has great potential in skincare.
Skincare products for astronauts?
As recently as in 2020, the extract was produced in the tens of grams using home appliances. When Uute secured its first client soon after, the demand for the raw material quickly grew to several kilos.
Suitable devices were found from a supplier of institutional kitchen equipment, while a production facility was established in an industrial hall in Lohja. While scaling up production, the raw material was modified according to client feedback into its current form: small particles that are mixed with a skincare product. Clients pay roughly one euro per gram for the raw material, of which half a gram per item is typically used.
Today, Uute has roughly 40 clients in 13 countries. More than a hundred products containing the microbial extract are on sale, with an additional 50 or so awaiting an appropriate launch date.
The clients using the extract have also won a number of awards, with press cuttings on related news adorning the walls at the Lohja factory. Re-Connecting Nature is now ready to be introduced to the international market, so that it may reach the skin of urban residents worldwide. However, this requires visibility in a highly competitive field.
"People don't yet know they need it, but we've had the opportunity to pitch our product even to the European Space Agency. It would be a major boon if we were able to include the microbial extract in the toiletries for astronauts."
