Lifestyle
These L.A. musicians investigated a medical mystery. What they discovered launched a new skincare line
The love story of musicians Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger and Mike Einziger was fortified in a lab.
After meeting through a mutual colleague in 2010, the Santa Monica-based couple’s courtship began the following year, as they were collaborating with Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer on a series of film scores. Einziger is best known as the founding guitarist of California-based rock band Incubus. His wife is a renowned composer and violinist for artists including Jethro Tull, Ringo Starr, Dave Matthews Band and Stevie Nicks.
The couple had been seeing one another for only about a year when together they stumbled upon a medical mystery. It resulted in a thrilling scientific discovery, the founding of a biotech beauty company called Mother Science — and their own unique happily-ever-after.
“It was an unexpected journey,” said Simpson-Einziger.
“We were simply trying to answer a series of unanswered scientific questions,” her husband added.
It all began in 2012 when Simpson-Einziger developed a fungal infection while traveling abroad. A classically trained violinist by trade, she was performing with composer A.R. Rahman in India when she noticed lightened patches of skin on her back and under her bra line. They resembled “loosely drawn flower blooms, with rounded edges,” she said.
After consulting her dermatologist, Simpson-Einziger was diagnosed with a temporary fungal infection called Tinea versicolor, which can lighten or darken skin pigmentation as a result of humidity.
“It’s an imbalance of the microbiome,” Simpson-Einziger said. “The condition was harmless, it resolves on its own and [I was told] that the lightened patches of skin would all go back to normal. But I got so curious.”
“We learned pretty quickly that there were no real hypotheses about how this was happening.”
— Mike Einziger, co-founder of Mother Science and Incubus guitarist
Armed with an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Virginia, the former physics and chemistry teacher pored through science journals like Pigment International and Chembiochem to find articles that better explained the science behind her skin condition. She then began to wonder if whatever had caused it could also be used as a skincare aid that reduced dark spots.
She enlisted the help of her then-fiancé, Einziger, who also happened to have a background in science. He had recently completed the two-year Special Student program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he studied cosmology and evolutionary biology. He still had access to the university’s considerable research databases, which meant he could help her look up articles on Tinea versicolor. Soon, he joined her obsession.
“There was tons of literature to research, but nothing coming at it from our perspective,” said Einziger. “We learned pretty quickly that there were no real hypotheses about how this was happening.”
Though they still couldn’t prove it, Simpson-Einziger’s theory that her skin condition could be of use in the beauty world kept them both up at night.
“I actually had a nightmare that somebody took her idea,” he said.
It was then, in 2015, that he called Dr. Jonathan Sackier, a family friend and biotech and medical entrepreneur, who co-invented robotic surgery.
“I taught his daughter violin lessons when I was a recent college graduate living in Virginia,” Simpson-Einziger said.
“We went to [him] fully prepared that we were going to get laughed out of the room,” Einziger added.
Sackier remembers the couple’s uncertainty during the phone call. “Ann-Marie was in the background, whispering, ‘He’s going to think we’re idiots,’” he said. “[Mike] asked if I could identify what it was about the fungal infection that was causing depigmentation and having identified it, could I synthesize or somehow isolate the chemical so that we could do something to impact pigmentation disorders.”
A surgeon by specialty, Sackier connected them with his colleague, Timothy Macdonald, a scientist and professor emeritus of chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Virginia.
“I have taken many projects to him over the years,” Sackier said. “I call him ‘Dr. No,’ because he always says, ‘No, that doesn’t make sense. No, that won’t work.’ When I told him this, he went, ‘Holy moly, that’s impressive.’”
Macdonald began advising the couple and helped connect them with a North Carolina-based research organization called PharmaDirections. The drug development company helped design a scientific program to explore various compounds that had caught the Einzigers’ attention while researching.
After countless studies, they discovered that a naturally occurring molecule that had co-evolved with the human microbiome, Malassezin (pronounced mal-uh-say-zin), could be beneficial for sun spots. While the molecule was identified and named in 2001, the Einzigers were the first to recognize that Malassezin could be valuable in the context of skincare.
“Malassezin is made from a yeast,” said New York-based dermatologist Dr. Amy Wechsler. “When someone has the yeast infection on their skin, the skin often bleaches temporarily.”
The couple filed an application to patent the discovery in 2016. (It was officially granted in 2018.) They then worked with a team of scientists including cosmetic chemist Susan Goldsberry and beauty innovation entrepreneur Tim McCraw to develop Malassezin into a topical serum after previously manufacturing it through a separate process called chemical synthesis.
They began testing to see if it could benefit melanocytes, the skin cells that produce melanin, the dark pigment in question. The couple used their personal savings to fund the initial research.
“I justified it as, ‘How much would I pay for an education where experts in the field teach me how to characterize a molecule and then commercialize it?’” Simpson-Einziger said. “That one-on-one education was worth what we put into investigating this molecule.”
They brought on beauty industry veteran Edna Coryell, McCraw’s daughter, as co-founder and CEO of Mother Science in August 2017 to oversee further research and development, which involved in vitro studies, 3D cell cultures, ex vivo skin testing and genetic analysis. Coryell had never brought a new ingredient to the market until Malassezin.
“It is very rare,” said Coryell. “Truly, as we were going through [the process], it was writing the playbook for this.’”
The Einzigers also collaborated with Dr. Pearl Grimes, director of the Vitiligo & Pigmentation Institute of Southern California, who specializes in vitiligo and pigmentation disorders.
“This is somebody who’s been looking at Tinea versicolor for decades,” Einziger said. “Her first reaction was, ‘How did you guys figure this out?’”
“I was 100% fascinated,” Grimes said of reviewing their initial in vitro studies. “The science [and] the concept was disruptive.”
Grimes assembled a clinical program, which led to proof-of-concept data that’s since been published in peer-reviewed journals including the American Academy of Dermatology and Journal of Drugs in Dermatology.
She went so far as to take a skin biopsy from her own elbow for lab testing. Using VISIA skin analysis technology, she found that the serum helped fade hyperpigmentation on the sample.
“That’s when I really knew that it worked,” Grimes said. “I used it in a stubborn area, and I could clearly see via photographic documentation that it was responding.”
“Having holes punched in my face was an ultimate act of belief in what we’ve made.”
— Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger, co-founder of Mother Science and violinist
Einziger also biopsied a patch on his arm for Grimes to analyze. “We felt responsible,” he said. “Mine was done before we even did the human clinical study.”
Simpson-Einziger joked that she too “put real skin in the game” after she said she had her face punch-biopsied — a procedure in which an instrument is used to remove a deeper skin sample — three times.
“Having holes punched in my face was an ultimate act of belief in what we’ve made,” Simpson-Einziger said.
Once the Einzigers confirmed that the data supported their initial hypothesis in a human clinical study, they moved forward with a business plan for what eventually became Mother Science. (It joins the couple’s two other co-founded businesses, including Mixhalo, a networking technology company for live events.)
Mother Science — named as a nod to French physicist and chemist Marie Curie — was born as a result of raising an initial round of approximately $3.2 million in seed funding from a small group of venture capitalists and angel investors, including Hawktail’s Michael Polansky and Drew Houston, the co-founder of Dropbox. After more than six years of research, Malassezin became the DNA of Mother Science, which officially launched in 2023 with its first product, Molecular Hero Serum ($89). The product is meant to reduce hyperpigmentation and brighten skin.
“It’s a powerful antioxidant,” Simpson-Einziger said. “When we started testing, we learned that Malassezin happens to offer superior protection against hydroxyl and peroxyl free radicals, which are [some of] the most damaging. We had this molecule that was going to do something marvelous in protecting the skin.”
A second product, Retinol Synergist ($96), was released earlier this year. And Molecular Genesis Barrier Repair Moisturizer ($68), featuring Malassezin, will be released on Jan. 7.
“Malassezin is really versatile, as it’s able to target hyperpigmentation, improve the skin’s moisture barrier and provide potent antioxidant protection without any irritation,” said Connecticut-based dermatologist Dr. Mona Gohara, who is also an associate clinical professor at Yale University. “The beauty of it is it’s gentle but also highly efficacious.”
In 2016, the same year the Einzigers filed a patent for their scientific discovery, the couple married. They are now parents to four children including a nearly one-year-old son. Because their courtship intersected with their scientific passion project, they consider Mother Science their fifth child.
“We had a lot of people who said, ‘You don’t want to do this. This is too hard. It’s going to take years.’” Simpson-Einziger said, pausing. “I remember thinking, ‘Years don’t scare me. I have a baby. I’m going to have to take care of a human for 18 years.’ There are no guarantees when you have a child how they’re going to turn out, but you do it out of love, out of passion, and it makes your life richer.”
While the couple continues to grow Mother Science’s product lineup, Simpson-Einziger is most proud of their process of discovery itself.
“We’re excited about contributing to science, and having that legacy as part of our brand,” she said.
She hopes Malassezin will one day be as universally known as Vitamin C and hyaluronic acid.
“I want people talking about Malassezin, not even about our brand, just about Malassezin,” she said.
In other words, she and her husband hope the ingredients of their products will be front and center — not themselves.
“Nobody is excited about coming to me for their skincare needs,” Einziger, who still regularly sells out stadiums with Incubus, said with a laugh. “I’m just a person who plays music who happens to be curious about the skin microbiome.”
Lifestyle
Where tradwives and leftists agree : Code Switch
The rise of momfluencers and tradwives are filling a void for modern mothers. In this episode, we continue our conversation about the hellscape of modern motherhood, and look into an alternative to the tradwife lifestyle.
We want to hear from our listeners about what you like about Code Switch and how we could do better. Please tell us what you think by taking our short survey, and thank you!
This episode was produced by Jess Kung. It was edited by Courtney Stein. Our engineer was Josephine Nyounai.
Lifestyle
Tell us: What smells remind you of L.A.?
There’s no single smell that defines Los Angeles. Certain scents are often linked to the bustling streets of downtown or the verdant banks of the L.A. River, while others are tied to the more secluded, quiet corners of places like Mount Washington or Bel-Air. The city’s essence shifts subtly as you move through it, with each location offering a different sensory experience that reflects the multitudes of Los Angeles.
Our sense of smell is often overlooked, but it’s the one thing that can bring back memories of a place faster than anything else. There’s the rich, loamy aroma of the Sequoia forests, which feels like nature itself is breathing. Or, if you’ve ever been to Ojai, you’ll know the sweet, citrusy scent of Pixie tangerines that lingers in the air. And think about driving up the 5 — you’ll get a whiff of manure whether you like it or not.
Los Angeles has its own distinct smells too, from taco stands to beach trips to Jacaranda trees in the late spring. We’d love to hear from you about your favorite (or least favorite) smells that remind you of L.A. Please fill out the form below and we may reach out to you for a future story.
Lifestyle
Nick Frost wants you to laugh and squirm in “Get Away”
In the new horror-comedy Get Away, the Smiths seem like your average British family, if maybe a bit… morbid? We meet them as they’re driving to a ferry where they’ll embark on a holiday to the fictional Swedish island of Svalta, but not everyone is happy to see them.
“In fact, they’re not welcome at all,” Nick Frost, the film’s writer, tells NPR.
He also plays the patriarch, Mr. Smith. “They shouldn’t be there. It should only be for the Swedes and they just don’t listen,” he says.
See, as polite as they may seem at the outset, the Smiths just don’t care whether they’re welcome or not. They’re here, and the locals are just going to have to deal with it.
“This is Europe, yeah?” Actor Maisie Ayres, who plays Jessie Smith, tells an ornery restaurant owner at the start of the film.
As Frost tells it, it’s pretty typical for British tourists – or American ones, for that matter – to act so entitled. “There is a community of Swedish nutcases who do not like foreigners. You are not on the island and the Smith family ignore every bit of advice to not go, and straight away they essentially walk right into a very angry group of natives,” Frost said.
YouTube
On combining horror and comedy
I love horror and I love comedy and I don’t see why we can’t be all of those things at the same time, you know? But I think traditionally in films we’ve done, the horror has to be frightening and horrific and the comedy should be funny. It should stand up as a comedy. And then, by the way, here at the end there’s a kind of slash-fest.
Folk horror and its influence on Get Away
This comes from me spending 20 years on and off going to this tiny Swedish island. My ex-wife’s family, they’re Swedish, and they have a beautiful house on this tiny island. There’s only 40 houses, there’s no roads, there’s no cars … and I was always amazed at how much culture they had, you know, the Scandinavians in particular. Coming from Britain, and London: yeah, we do have culture, but it’s not like they have there. Ours has been dumbed down slightly. I just love the fact that my children got to grow up around a society that had that kind of culture.
They celebrate things. They dress up as dogs some days. They stay up all night drinking vodka on other [days]. You know what I mean? Every community has its little cultural quirks and I just found that fascinating. [But] even in 20 years I never really felt like they accepted me. Being British, there’s this kind of desperation to be accepted, [like] ‘please like me.’
Entitlement of British tourists
I think that generally is the dynamic of English people. We’re still surprised when people don’t speak English. We’re flabbergasted that no one would take into consideration our needs. We are that really. I think historically on [Svalta] we suggest that four British sailors were killed 250 years ago and then our British family invade the island 250 years later.
What a horror comedy can teach an audience
There’s a Belgian Dutch film called The Vanishing and then there’s also a [Belgian] mockumentary called Man Bites Dog where a film crew follows a serial killer around to get a glimpse into his life. Both of those films – the central antagonist is a serial killer. They are homicidal maniacs. They’re not nice people. They’re awful people. But what those filmmakers did really well was, you know, they’re rubbish at their jobs … you know you get to a point where you empathize with them because they appear human and I really like that.
I got a chance with this to kind of do the same thing where you shouldn’t like the Smith family in the end – I don’t want to give spoilers away – but you shouldn’t “kind of” like the Smith family. But as an audience member, if you can walk out of the cinema, of the theater, and say ‘they were kind of nice, they were cute and funny,’ it leaves people a bit torn when they come out, which is great.
On the 20th anniversary of Shaun of the Dead
It feels great. I think I tried to keep a vibe of that in Get Away, too, in terms of I haven’t made it to make a specific type of audience laugh. I’ve made it to make [actor and co-writer] Simon Pegg laugh and I’ve made it to make [co-writer and director] Edgar Wright laugh. So that’s my audience: Simon and Edgar and I think I took that away from Shaun of the Dead. I’ve been working now as an actor fairly successfully for 20 years now, and I think I’m very thankful for that kind of longevity.
Worst tourists: American or British?I don’t want to upset anyone here, but I think Americans in America, they just fit. It works. But if you take Americans anywhere else, it just doesn’t really work. It’s not a good … culturally it’s not a good fit. But British people in Britain are sometimes really annoying.
Get Away is in select theaters now.
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