Biological materials, ingredient research, and formulation science.
VARUNÉ Bio helps beauty and ingredient businesses investigate new material possibilities, compare formulation approaches, and shape the evidence needed for the next stage of development.
Varun Sharma features in Kacey Culliney’s reporting on the evidence behind beauty claims.
A stronger connection between science and the claim.
Read the independent feature and the current VARUNÉ Bio context behind our approach to ingredient and formulation research.
OUR MISSION
More possibilities. A scientific foundation.
Biology offers a remarkable starting point for the next generation of cosmetic materials.
VARUNÉ Bio is being built to connect that potential with ingredient research and formulation development. Our focus is the relationship between a material’s identity, the way it is prepared, and what it contributes in a defined application.
Our initial directions are polar-associated materials and biochemical light. Each begins with a specific research question, a meaningful comparison, and the evidence required for a further development decision.
Our initial research directions connect material behaviour with a defined development question. The work below shows their current stage and the proposed route forward.
We are scoping comparisons of biological polymers, deposited films, and their response to water and changing conditions in cosmetic formulation.
Our question is whether a carefully prepared biological material could help a cosmetic layer behave differently with water, and whether that difference would be useful.
Material identity, preparation, and application belong in the same scientific record. Proposed studies compare a defined preparation with an established alternative before any performance claim is made.
Our biochemical-light direction examines catalyst retention, reactant access, and interpretable output in defined non-human-use research systems.
Our question is how to keep a light-producing reaction useful and repeatable inside a material or research tool. Any cosmetic use would need its own evidence and development work.
The first purpose is a measurable signal in an inert-surface or research-tool setting. Enzyme chemistry, materials, and measurement are considered together; skin application remains outside this proposed first scope.
Our public evidence work connects source records, measurement conditions, units, and computational comparisons so that the basis of a development decision remains inspectable.
A number is more useful when another person can see where it came from, what was measured, and what it can actually tell them.
The Evidence Observatory makes published observations available to inspect alongside their methods and limits. It demonstrates our approach to a scientific record; the original measurements belong to their investigators.
A proposed project connects a real application with the people, resources, and evidence needed to investigate it.
01
The application
A cosmetic or ingredient need, the current approach, and the difference worth assessing.
02
The scientific scope
A comparison, method, qualified scientific lead, and appropriate delivery arrangements.
03
The resources
Agreed funding, facilities, material access, responsibilities, and rights.
04
The decision
A record of the results and limits, with a clear basis for continuing, changing direction, or stopping.
The research directions are at scoping stage. A project becomes active when its scientific ownership, resources, and delivery terms are agreed.
Development services for brands and ingredient businesses
Proposed services cover formulation decision briefs, applied-film comparisons, and evidence collections. Each is scoped around the customer’s development question, available expertise, and required output.
The relationship between a material and its conditions is part of the result. This working example keeps two published frequency sweeps connected to their source rows and methods.
Storage modulus G′ describes the elastic component of a material’s response during oscillation. Frequency, strain, temperature, and instrument geometry remain part of the comparison.
These measurements describe how springy two materials behave during a small repeated movement. The test conditions matter, so a single number cannot tell the whole story.
Carbopol microgel · observed G′
Commercial body lotion · observed G′
External observations at 25 °C, roughly 1% strain, roughened PP50/P2 geometry. The rows are measurements within sweeps, not independent preparations or VARUNÉ results. Different specimens do not establish ingredient causality or current commercial specifications. Woodbridge, Juel and Pereira Da Fonte (2025), CC BY 4.0.
Beauty brands, ingredient businesses, researchers, and funders each have a different role in the route from an idea to a useful result.
A formulation challenge, with a scientific route forward.
A brand may be assessing a new texture, a material substitution, or an ingredient whose contribution is unclear. VARUNÉ can help frame the comparison, map the available evidence, and identify the expertise and testing the project would require.
A clearer case for a material’s place in cosmetics.
Composition, preparation, and useful function connect an ingredient’s origin to a buyer’s decision. A development discussion can establish which part of that case is supported and which comparison remains to be resourced.
Specialist expertise, connected to an application.
Our proposed directions involve polymer characterisation, interface science, enzyme chemistry, optics, and scientific data. Collaboration would begin with named responsibilities, an agreed method, appropriate facilities, and a funded scope.
Funding around a defined research milestone.
A funding discussion connects the intended buyer, scientific question, rights, resources, and result needed for the next stage. Potential routes include a scoped development collaboration, research support, or company investment, subject to separate terms.
DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT
The evidence behind the next stage.
A better scientific record should strengthen a commercial choice.
Our long-term aim is a portfolio of useful biological materials and development knowledge. The first commercial test is whether a customer will fund a comparison that changes their next decision.
Our public investment pages connect these possibilities with the buyer, development resources, rights, and next evidence requirement.
OUR FOUNDER
Ambition, with a scientific purpose.
Varun Sharma is building VARUNÉ Bio around a practical ambition: turn biological function into development opportunities that researchers, customers, and investors can examine on their merits.
The work grows through the evidence, expertise, and commercial purpose needed for another step.
Bring a formulation question that deserves a different scientific approach.
A short, non-confidential introduction is enough to begin: what is being developed, what matters most, and where scientific input could help. VARUNÉ reviews the fit and the resources a project would need, with scope and next steps agreed together.
