Michael Polansky, co-founder of AI and biology startup Outer Biosciences, has been training an AI model on skin that’s still alive for over a month without anyone outside the company knowing. He grew up in Minnesota and went to Harvard, where he studied applied mathematics and computer science. After graduating, he worked at Bridgewater Associates before moving to Silicon Valley.
Polansky met Lady Gaga through Sean Parker, whom she had come to know through her philanthropic work with Polansky’s firm. They have a full partnership, professionally and personally, managing Gaga’s world tour and Haus Labs, the cosmetics brand she built on her kitchen floor. Outer Biosciences sources human skin that would otherwise be discarded after surgery, keeping it alive for up to a month using proprietary support systems developed by their team.
The company uses AI models to predict which untested chemicals are likely to have beneficial effects on specific skin functions. These chemicals are then tested through the living-tissue system and the results fed back into the model, improving future guesses. Outer Biosciences is currently generating new candidates every six weeks with several dozen additional hits logged in their pipeline. The company has raised roughly $23 million from early backers including Wing Ventures, Initialized, and Polansky’s own investing firm, Hawktail.