Launch Date: February 2024
Geography: Wilmington, Delaware
Founders:
Executive Team:
2026 Full Year Projected Revenue: $5M - $8M
Primary Category: Skincare
Other Categories:
Funding: Venture Capital
Primary Distribution Channel: DTC
Other Distribution Channels:
Key Retail Partner: Ulta Beauty
2026 Projected Offline Distribution Points: 757
SickScience Labs was built in a laboratory long before it became a brand—and exosomes were at the core of our research from day one. As Harvard and MD Anderson-trained scientists, we spent over a decade researching cellular signaling in oncology and regenerative medicine. But when Dr. Merve Yıldırım’s mother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, the research became deeply personal.
After our breakthrough technology was published and successfully utilized in cellular repair, the pivotal question arose: If this molecular technology can restore cells here, what else is it capable of?
The answer led us to skin. Exosomes are nature’s ultimate molecular messengers, instructing cells how to repair, renew, and function. While the beauty industry was chasing surface-level trends, we leveraged a decade of clinical data to restore cellular communication at the root. Deeper than collagen. Deeper than peptides.
We didn't follow a trend; we created a new molecular standard. SickScience Labs is the intersection of clinical oncology research and high-performance biotechnology, built to change how the world views skin health.
Insights: Merve Yıldırım, Co-Founder + CTO
Why now and why you?
Why now? Because consumers are ready for beauty that goes beyond trends and is built on real science, data, and biological understanding.
Why us? Because SickScience Labs was created by scientists who have spent years working in biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and cellular communication. We are not discovering this space from a marketing perspective; we come from the science itself.
With NX35, our proprietary plant-derived exosome technology platform, we have the ability to turn deep biological research into targeted products for skin, scalp, and body concerns. The timing is right because the industry is shifting toward biotech-driven innovation. And we are the right team because we have the science, the technology, and the vision to lead that shift.
What fuels your competitive advantage?
Our competitive advantage is driven by NX35, our proprietary, fully integrated discovery-to-formulation platform built on plant-derived exosomes. Rather than following trends, we have spent a decade building the scientific infrastructure and proprietary isolation processes required to extract bioactive exosomes at an industrial, kilogram-level scale—solving a massive scalability challenge that would take competitors years to replicate.
Through continuous multilayered omics analysis, we have built a proprietary functional mapping library. We don't just guess; we map every protein and lipid to its precise cellular mechanism. This enables NX35 to pinpoint exactly which plant-derived exosomes are biologically programmed to target and rewrite cellular activity for specific skin, scalp, and body concerns with unmatched precision.
Backed by a team trained at Harvard and MD Anderson, we approach beauty through the lens of oncology and regenerative medicine. Powered by NX35, SickScience Labs is not just a skincare brand—we are a defensible biotechnology platform continuously clinical-testing and launching next-generation cellular solutions.
What’s your proudest accomplishment to date?
What I am most proud of is proof of concept at a global scale: We successfully broke down the wall between deep-tech biotechnology and commercial hypergrowth, proving that advanced cellular science belongs on the world's biggest beauty stages.
Moving our research from Harvard and MD Anderson into a proprietary platform like NX35 was a massive scientific milestone. But watching the market respond has been profoundly rewarding. In our first full year, we generated millions in sales with a 100% DTC presence in North America, driven by an exceptional 47% returning customer rate—proving our molecular formulas deliver undeniable, addictive results.
What cements my pride, however, is how fast we transitioned from a disruptive digital brand to a retail powerhouse. By our very second year, we launched a massive retail expansion, securing 757 Ulta Beauty doors. This rapid market dominance has been validated by the industry's highest authorities, earning us multiple features on The Today Show, the prestigious InStyle Best Beauty Buys Awards, and top honors at the 2026 Cosmopolitan’s Readers’ Choice Awards, Women’s Health, and Men’s Health Awards. We proved that the future of beauty lies in evidence-based innovation that consumers actively demand.
What is the one thing you wish someone had told you?
I wish someone had told me that the hardest part is not creating the science—it is building the bridge between science and people.
Coming from biotechnology and regenerative medicine, we were used to developing complex, high-potential innovations. But building SickScience Labs taught me that impact only happens when people can understand, trust, and experience that science in their daily lives. The real challenge is not only proving that the technology works but making it feel accessible, desirable, and relevant. That lesson changed how we think about innovation.
What would you tell your past self before starting this journey?
I would tell my past self: don’t wait. The world doesn’t need more ideas sitting on the shelf—it needs people willing to turn science into impact. Move faster. Take the leap. Trust your instincts. There will never be a perfect moment, and innovation means very little if it never leaves the lab.
The world needs bold thinkers, breakthrough technologies, and people willing to challenge what’s possible. So stop overthinking, start building, and remember that meaningful change belongs to those who are willing to act.
What does success look like in the next 3-5 years?
Success means establishing SickScience Labs and our NX35 platform as a globally recognized biotechnology platform that creates entirely new categories, rather than following existing beauty trends.
Over the next 3-5 years, we will scale our multiphase R&D roadmap. Having proven our disruptive power with ShapeShift (Phase 1: fat breaking) and PowerCycle (Phase 2: hair growth), our next frontier focuses on Phase 3 and Phase 4 advanced regenerative innovations. Specifically, we are capitalizing on the macro global GLP-1 movement by engineering non-injectable, topical exosome biofillers to address volume loss and skin sagging, providing a painless, high-performance alternative to invasive cosmetic procedures.
Commercially, success looks like hyperscale. Building on our complete retail expansion across all Ulta Beauty doors, we will deepen our US market footprint while systematically executing our international expansion scaling toward a $40M+ annual revenue run rate.
Above all, we want SickScience Labs and our NX35 technology platform to demonstrate that cutting-edge biotechnology can create products that are both highly effective and widely accessible. If millions of people are benefiting from innovations that began in our lab, and if we have helped shape the future of the industry in the process, that will be success.
What's one industry trend that is overhyped, and what's being overlooked?
We think one of the most overhyped trends is the endless stream of ingredients that are marketed as scientific breakthroughs without a true understanding of how they work biologically. Too often, the industry focuses on isolated ingredients and impressive-sounding claims rather than meaningful mechanisms.
What’s being overlooked is the importance of cellular communication. Healing and regeneration begin at the cellular level; they are not the result of a single ingredient, but of a coordinated biological process. That’s why we believe the future lies in cell-inspired molecules and technologies that work with the body’s natural signaling pathways rather than against them.
Beauty and wellness are ultimately systems, not shortcuts. Real, lasting improvements happen when we support the body's own regenerative processes. In the end, biology is a conversation, and healing starts with the cell.
How do you think the industry needs to evolve?
The industry needs to evolve from marketing-led innovation to biology-led innovation. For decades, the focus has been on launching products faster, following trends, and promoting individual ingredients. But consumers are becoming more educated and are demanding products that are backed by real science, meaningful data, and a deeper understanding of how the body works.
The future lies in technologies that support cellular communication and work with the body's natural regenerative processes. Healing and renewal are not driven by a single ingredient—they are complex biological processes that begin at the cellular level.
The industry also needs to shift from creating more products to creating better ones. Instead of asking, "What's trending?” we should be asking, "What unmet need can we solve?" The companies that will shape the next decade won't be the ones with the loudest marketing but the ones building technologies that genuinely improve people's lives.
If you could wave a magic wand, what one wish would you make for your business?
If I could wave a magic wand, my wish wouldn't be about scaling numbers—it would be about universal experience: I want every consumer globally to try this technology and witness firsthand how true cellular reprogramming works.
We spent over a decade in laboratories, researching complex oncology and regenerative medicine before translating that science into skincare. This isn't just another beauty product; it’s a hard-fought clinical breakthrough that moved from cancer research to skin health. We poured years of our lives into mastering NX35 so it could safely and precisely rewrite cellular signals.
My ultimate wish is to strip away the traditional marketing smoke and mirrors and let the molecular data speak for itself. I want millions of people to apply our formulas and physically see what true, mechanism-driven biotechnology can do for their skin. My magic wand wish is to fast track this timeline overnight, allowing everyone, everywhere, to stop buying stories and start experiencing real scientific innovation.
