CosmeNovIC: Plant Natural Products production by novel in vitro culture approaches for improved cosmeceuticals efficiency and security

Coordinator of the consortium: Dr Christophe Hano, Laboratory of Woody Plants and Crops Biology (LBLGC) / INRAE, University of Orléans - FR

Summary of the consortium

Plants are an unrivalled source of natural compounds capable of presenting an interest as innovative bioactive compounds for cosmetics applications and/or replace synthetic compounds. Indeed, most of anti-oxidatives, preservatives or UV filters already present in cosmetic products are still mainly synthetic products, however there is still a guarded opinion on their innocuousness. As such, it is important, be it in public health, environmental protection or in public relations for the cosmetic industries to quickly find and propose an alternative solution to this synthetic products. In the wild, and in particular in the vegetal world, a lot of compounds can show properties enabling them to replace the synthetic compounds. However, this large potential of active ingredients of plant origins lays still unexplored and as such, underexploited. Recent progress in functional genomics, processes of extractions and in metabolic profiling now offers unmatched possibilities to use biochemical capacities of plants to produce and design compounds of high added value.

This project aims to put in place integrated metabolic engineering strategies for the industrial size production of metabolites of interest. The implementation of holistic systemic biological data (an approach aiming at understanding the dynamic functioning of a cell or an organism at the global scale) obtained by integrative approaches should allow the optimization of the secondary metabolites production in plants, and the conception of de novo metabolite modules with increased synthesis capacity using in vitro systems.