Breakthrough skin science discovery

Some common risk factors of developing age spots include:

• Having lightly pigmented skin
• A history of frequent sun exposure
• Frequent tanning bed use

Recognizing UC’s leadership in human pigmentation research, a global cosmetics company, KOSÉ Corporation (Tokyo, Japan), approached Professor Abdel-Malek by asking: What is the contribution of dermal fibroblast-derived factors to the formation of age spots, and could this mechanism be targeted to prevent or reduce them?

What began as a scientific question about the biology of skin pigmentation has now evolved into a new scientific breakthrough and a recently launched cosmetic product by KOSÉ.

Investigators at KOSÉ in Japan, led by Yuki Mizutani, PhD, and Toru Atsugi, PhD, knew Abdel-Malek was the researcher and subject-matter expert who could power the discovery they sought.

“The KOSÉ Corporation is a major and influential cosmetics company in Japan,” says Abdel-Malek. “So, we developed a project together where they funded a two-year grant to have one of their leading scientists, Daiki Yamakoshi, join my lab and work on this particular project under my tutelage. Our investigation focused on biopsies from solar lentigos, which are particularly prevalent among Asian populations.”

This inquiry laid the groundwork for a partnership between UC and KOSÉ. It highlights the core benefits of academic-industry collaboration and the advancement of research by combining scientific expertise with practical needs.

• The sFRP1 gene codes for a protein that acts as an age spot inhibitor of pigmentation is produced mainly by fibroblasts, the main structural cells in the dermis
• sFRP1 protein inhibits pigmentation
• When there is less sFRP1 protein, melanocytes make more melanin, creating dark age spots
• In age spots, sFRP1 protein levels are significantly lower than in normal skin
• Aging fibroblasts in the dermis produce less sFRP1 protein over time

This breakthrough revealed a previously unknown mechanism:

        Changes in a dermal fibroblast-derived factor play a key role in the formation of solar         lentigo. Sun exposure that causes skin aging results specifically in the reduction of         sFRP1 expression by fibroblasts, thereby increasing skin pigmentation seen in solar             lentigines.

“By identifying a novel biological factor, this discovery advances the field and underscores the importance of the dermis (not only the epidermis) in regulating skin pigmentation,” says Abdel-Malek.

Such fundamental scientific insight reinforces another benefit of academic partnerships: strategic knowledge transfer, where discoveries in university labs help solve practical problems faced by industry. 

After Abdel-Malek’s lab identified the sFRP1 pathway, KOSÉ scientists searched for ingredients that could boost its expression. The researchers also found that Green Rooibos extract, an extract from the plant Aspalathus linearis, can increase sFRP1 production in skin fibroblasts, thereby restoring the pigment-inhibiting signal.

This finding enabled KOSÉ to develop a new cosmetic product targeting age spots, with potential broader applications for hyperpigmentary conditions like melasma, which disproportionately affects Asians, Latinos, and Middle Eastern communities.

Working in tandem with the UC Office of Technology Transfer, located within the 1819 Innovation Hub, KOSÉ filed a patent application in Japan, naming Abdel-Malek as a co-inventor for the development of the product, which officially launched in January 2026.

The role of technology transfer is to ensure that impactful research doesn’t stop at discovery,” says Geoffrey Pinski, assistant vice president for technology transfer, UC’s Office of Innovation. “By licensing this innovation and partnering with industry leaders like KOSÉ, we were able to rapidly move a promising academic discovery into real-world application. In this case, a two-year span from scientific discovery to commercialization. Such collaboration is rare, but when it succeeds, it accelerates the path to market and delivers benefits to industry, academia, and the public.”