Scientist Sophie Bai, known in China as Bai Xuefei, is making waves in the United States’ skincare market. The 34-year-old former healthcare and life sciences investor from Henan province in central China applies her expertise in biomedicine to develop cutting-edge products for her company, B.A.
I. Biosciences. Bai has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she worked with Professor Robert Langer, co-founder of the pharmaceutical giant Moderna.
While at the institute, Bai helped develop drug delivery technologies in the quest to find cures for prostate and lung cancer and type 1 diabetes. “Skin is very personal to me,” Bai told the industry publication Beauty Independent last year. She grew up with terrible cystic acne and eczema, and was devastated when, at the age of 11, during a public speaking contest in front of an audience of 1,000 people, the judges said she looked “ugly”.
She said she did not eat lunch for a week after that competition so she could save her money to buy her first foundation makeup. She then became a “very heavy beauty consumer”. “That incident really changed my personality.
It made me more insecure and not want to hang out with, or be seen by, people.” Bai demonstrated a talent for science from a young age, taking part in maths and science competitions from the age of seven. At 16, while at secondary school in Shanghai, she discovered an anti-ageing compound.
A minor p.