NC16SanDiegoMagazine.comMarch2011 ❯❯ NORTH COUNTY WOMEN HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO slather their faces with fruit, fish oil, foreskin (uh huh, the target of circumcision) and even the neuro- toxin that causes botulism — all in the name of looking pretty. Now an Oceanside biotech has another novel ingredient for the aging-averse: stem cells from unfertilized human eggs. “It’s not like a woman donated eggs in Encinitas and three months later it’s in some- one’s skin in L.A.,” explains Brian Lundstrom, president of International Stem Cell Corpora- tion (ISSC) in Oceanside, parent company of Lifeline Skin Care. It’s more like this: Women go to in-vitro fertilization clinics to get preg- nant. There are oen leover eggs from that process. Researchers select stem cells, grow billions of them, and extract the bits that skin loves, such as growth factors — with permis- sion from the donors, of course. Scientists then whip ’em up with antioxidants and sell the stuff in a slick plastic tube for about the cost of a month’s supply of Frappuccinos. Is this a noncaffeinated fountain of youth? Ruslan Semechkin, the CEO of Lifeline and a biologist by training, says an eight-week study showed the day-and-night serum combo reduced the number and depth of wrinkles and made skin brighter, tighter and moist- er — though he wouldn’t say by how much. (Semechkin is 25, has the olive-tinged skin of a baby and admits a complexion of his variety doesn’t need this heavy hitter.) Even in the stem cell world, youth is coveted. Lundstrom says stem cells taken from unfertilized eggs — the very seeds of life — are the youngest around and can be- come any cell in the human body. This is the first time such stem cell fragments have found their way into beauty cream, he ex- plains. And because the eggs aren’t fertilized, they bypass the embryo controversy. Someday, movement in the paralyzed and memory in the aged could be restored by using such cells; ISSC has already grown a hu- man cornea that could cure blindness in people with eye damage. These breakthroughs may be decades away, but ISSC’s “cosmeceuticals” are just the beginning. Profits from pocketbooks of the age-ob- sessed will fund the biotech’s research for other therapeutic drugs. So if you’re con- sidering spending a small fortune to plump things up, you could call it a contribution to science. Lifeline Defensive Day Moisture Serum sells for $155 and Lifeline Recovery Night Moisture Serum costs $185. It’s available at lifelineskincare.com. REBECCA TOLIN A LITTLE EGG on the face