Living Proof built haircare like biotech in an MIT lab — Unilever bought it in 2016

Science-based premium haircare: shampoos and stylers built on patented molecules developed in an MIT bioengineering lab.

Haircare could be engineered like biotech drugs — patentable molecules (OFPMA, PBAE, ETAS) from an MIT lab, with celebrity equity instead of celebrity endorsement.

Living Proof was co-founded in 2005 by MIT bioengineering professor Robert Langer with entrepreneur Jon Flint and venture capitalist Amir Nashat, on the premise that hair products should be developed like biotech drugs.

Its volumizing compound PBAE began life in Langer's lab as a material to deliver DNA into cells for gene therapy, later adapted to deposit microscopic thickening dots on each strand; OFPMA and PBAE were patented, with a pending application for ETAS, tiny air-filled spheres for texture. In 2012 Jennifer Aniston became an investor and the brand's face — by Fortune's 2014 account a working partner, not a rented endorser.

Unilever announced the acquisition in December 2016; terms were never made public. Living Proof was folded into Unilever's Prestige portfolio alongside Dermalogica, Murad and Kate Somerville, and Aniston left with her shares cashed out.

The products carried patents — OFPMA and PBAE, with ETAS pending — so performance claims rested on molecules competitors could not copy.

Drug-development discipline in an MIT lab gave the brand a founder story and ingredient science the beauty aisle lacked.

Aniston's 2012 investment bought credibility and reach while keeping her tied to outcomes, not just appearances.

Unilever was paying up for prestige haircare exposure, and a patented, science-backed brand was the credible way in.

A celebrity works best as a shareholder with skin in the game rather than a rented face — and patents in the formula outlast any endorsement deal.

The company left the market as an independent business with the December 2016 Unilever deal. As of the Economic Times' October 2026 retrospective, the case still stands as the reference point for celebrity involvement structured as ownership of real intellectual property rather than an endorsement.