The annual World Congress for Hair Research is the most important conference of the year when it comes to hair loss related research. While some of the presentations at this conference always cover existing treatments (such as finasteride, hair transplants and wigs), the majority cover more futuristic technologies and research. Some presentations also entail entirely new takes upon existing technologies and research.
Previously I covered both the 8th World Congress for Hair Research in 2014 and the 9th World Congress for Hair Research in 2015. For some reason, there was no conference in 2016. However, the 10th World Congress for Hair Research is scheduled to take place in Kyoto, Japan from October 31st 2017 through November 3rd 2017.
Moreover, just as in 2015, “Hellouser” is attending the conference and has e-mailed me that he will be posting his videos on youtube, but still needs to raise some more funds. You can donate towards his trip here. He is regularly posting updates in this thread on HLT.
Key Presentations of Interest
As is always the case at this Congress, a who’s who of the hair loss research world is presenting. Asia based researchers are especially well represented this time around. Readers can go through the oral presentation list and see which items interest them. Poster presentation list is here.
It is hard to try to compile a list of just 10 or so items of interest as I have done in the past, since around one-third of the presentations look highly interesting. Some initial thoughts:
- While it seems like locally based Dr. Takashi Tsuji from RIKEN is not presenting in person, another researcher (Dr. Koh-ei Toyoshima) who collaborates with Dr. Tsuji is presenting: “Basic study to clinical phase, a fully functional organ regenerative therapy for the hair follicle”.
- Also from RIKEN, Dr. Hironobu Fujiwara will discuss “Reciprocal interactions between epidermal stem cells and their environment”.
- The other renowned locally headquartered entity of interest, Shiseido, is very much present. Several of the company’s researchers are participating, including the respected Dr. Jiro Kishimoto.
- Dr. Mayumi Ito will discuss something that all of us have discussed on here a lot lately: “Wound healing and hair follicle regeneration”.
- Dr. George Cotsarelis discusses prostaglandins.
- Dr. Bessam Farjo is one of many keynote speakers, and his lecture is titled: “A new approach to hair cell therapy: Combining medical and scientific innovation in hair ‘cloning'”.
- Most of the topics in the “Stem Cells and the Niche” and “Tissue Engineering using Hair Follicle Cells” sections are of major relevance to this blog’s subject matter. Six of the ten presentations in these two sections are by Japanese researchers (!); three are by Korean researchers (!); and one by Germany’s Dr. Gerd Lindner who seemed to have disappeared in recent years. His presentation is titled “Bioengineering human hair follicle anlagen within a full thickness skin equivalent”.
- Dr. Antonella Tosti has an interesting presentation titled: “A new topical WNT/beta-catenin activator in the treatment of men with male pattern hair loss”. What could that topical be?
- A significant number of presentations concern natural products (aloe, botanicals, ginseng, green tea, Korean native plants), lasers and PRP. All these treatments are somewhat controversial, at least insofar as regrowing hair on totally bald regions of the scalp goes.
- “Alopecia areata” and “female hair loss” are both well covered subjects, especially the former.
- Surprisingly, while more than five presentations cover Finasteride, none covers Dutasteride, even though the latter is approved as a hair loss treatment in Japan and South Korea.
Very interested in sisheido, reiken and the natural stuff like ginger and green tea. Curious to see what results these bring. Kind of not surprised cots isn’t going to talk about RAIN. looks like prostaglandin is his focus hmmmm. Possible topical ingredient in rain. Fingers crossed we see awesome pics of results from all these treatments. We deserve it after all these years.
Side question…admin have you ever used liquid rogaine? I think you said you use the foam. I’m thinkin of switching to liquid since I’m not getting much results from foam…
It’s frustrating not to see any news on the Replicel product. I know the initial results weren’t that great (10-20% increase in production) but it’s still possible that if those results build over multiple years it could become interesting. Or at least if it stops or slows balding that could help a lot of us. It’s taking too long!!
Shiseido is Replicel in Asia.
if you are disappointed with the phase1 results it’s because you don’t understand how phase1 works. Just the fact that it showed a slight increase in hair count when the aim of the study was SAFETY, shows how promising the treatment is.
I’m bummed to learn of these natural “treatments” being included. I though the congress was a serious place with truly above board participants. What’s the criteria to be invited to present there?
I would listen to it if they had anecdotal evidence that it helped ! As a matter of fact , To win this fight we cant leave any stone unturned. Im happy that baldenss is starting to be attacked from all directions!
I go on YouTube looking for videos recommending natural remedies for hair loss, made by people dated 2014 or older, then fast forward to their very recent videos and they have the same bad hair.
Hey Scott can you share some examples?
What are they using?
On example is the YouTube channel Ajax Unchained. He is part of the NOFAP movement (giving up masturbation for life) and one of its supposed benefits is hair regrowth. But fast forward to a more recent video of his he admits it has not made a difference and he now accepts having thinning hair.
Watching old videos, then the newer videos by the same people, has its benefits for spotting fad hair advise, fad diets, and anything else fake.
“thinning hair”? That dude is already bald. Sorry for him.
Are you trolling?
“Dr. Antonella Tosti has an interesting presentation titled: “A new topical WNT/beta-catenin activator in the treatment of men with male pattern hair loss”. What could that topical be?”
Methyl vanillate perhaps… http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jocd.12225/full
Good find Bob! Thanks.
Just found the same docs, which then brought me to this:
https://www.amazon.com/Spray-Hair-Regrowth-Combat-Baldness/dp/B0725K4CQ9
This is the first I’m hearing of methyl vanillate. I didn’t realize there was already a product for it.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Enzo_Emanuele/publication/301696342_Topical_application_of_the_Wntb-catenin_activator_methyl_vanillate_increases_hair_count_and_hair_mass_index_in_women_with_androgenetic_alopecia/links/5724aae708aee491cb3a98cf.pdf
I found here the full paper if someone is curious.
Thanks!
Deltacrin wnt
Anyone else having problems with the links to the oral presentation list and poster list?
Seems like they changed both links today. I updated them.
BTW — anyone having issues with this blog’s load speed today? I am.
I have not noticed it today but I have been having issues (in Chrome) for several weeks. I had assumed it might be related to one of the ads.
Thanks. Most likely a plugin problem (I have around 10 and many get updated regularly). Was your issue just related to speed?
It was load speed and then when I tried to scroll down to the bottom of the comments, it wouldn’t respond. It also took minutes for a link to load. It seemed to slow everything in my browser down. When I closed the blog, my browser would return to normal. It’s fine now.
Pretty speedy
Great will have for sure new info.
Like possible data for trials and realese…..
Most interested in what Cots, RIKEN and Shiseido have to say.
There won’t be any release dates or trial data, but they probably have interesting presentations for the sake of knowledge.
someday in the near future…we will be better looking boys lol. Seriously. Unless you have a nice head shape, face, and tan, you need hair to frame your face…just like a picture looks odd without a frame
There’s nothing in the “near future” to make any of us believe we are out of the woods. I only wish.
Give it a rest, dude; your crying has just become irritating at this point.
That Guy = That Cope
No, I just don’t like having hairloss, want what receded of my hair to be restored, and plan on using the couple of late-stage of clinical therapies that will be on the market within the next 3 years to do so. I take finasteride, use minoxidil and will get a transplant if Follica doesn’t come out by the end of 2019. That’s totally “cope”, right?
Unlike you, who repeatedly asks for users’ opinions about what is close to coming out and what will work and then shoot down every opinion and fact alike that you’re given; nothing will be good enough and you will return to crying about how awful your state of affairs is.
Admit it: You enjoy that hairloss makes you feel like a victim of divine cruelty because it’s a convenient implication in every social failure.
That Projection
Lol k
@Hanginginthewire: You are wrong…Please. Be attentive to the congresses and all the events related to hair loss and male pattern baldness.
@Paul Oh I’m certainly following it and I’m hopeful. I’m just saying it doesn’t appear to me that we can confidently assert that a new, effective treatment is guaranteed in the near future. Some exciting prospects- maybe, guarantees – not yet. I hope and hope that you are right but I don’t see the smoking gun yet.
Hanging in there. We will have 2 new treatments before 2020. I’m guessing follica for us here in the states and sisheido in japan. Obviously you can fly to japan for it. Now will these be cured probably not but it will be much better than current treatments that don’t work so well. Sisheido for maintenance and follica for regrowth mixed with fue.
There will never be a “cure” for hairloss in the way that most people imagine one to be.
Tsuji is not a “cure” in the way that most people visiting sites like this imagine it to be.
Follica, Shiseido, Tsuji are the same thing: Treatments, with differing mechanisms of action, that can eliminate the symptoms of hairloss.
Some methods will inevitably be more effective at achieving that result within a small margin of error, and certain methods may not be viable options for certain people, but the result still satisfies the literal definition of a “cure”.
“Better treatments” are what is coming — and better treatments are all you will ever get.
CRISPR 2030 i’m skeptical of your comment. If you were a QCB I would be convinced.
Perhaps there will be some kind of preventative in the future than a definite hairloss cure for some lucky generation? I’m sure any upcoming treatments will be great for those in the early stages of hairloss, but for us here in Australia, TGA clearance would unfortunately be many years away-not to mention the dreaded ‘Australia tax’ on everything, making imported goods, services, etc extremely expensive. If it turns out that Repicel for instance, only just maintains existing hair for the majority, then I would hop on a flight to Japan in a heartbeat.
HISTOGEN????
wnt pathway news born again
http://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1738
When can we have a complete cure somebody please tell losing hope.
next year we will have new treatments in japan and US in the fall according to several people here
I think shiseido is our closest treatment. Riken 2020
Rashid are you on any treatments? If not try Propecia and Rogaine together. Don’t be afraid of the sides buddy…I’ve been using propecia for over 10 yrs and it helped me halt my loss for a decade. Better treatments are coming but in the meantime hop on Propecia ASAP to hold on to what you got.
Sure mate. Just got a prescription from my family Doc I ll get on it soon. Thanks for your advice. But I actually need some ground breaking treatment to get back my ridiculously thick locks that I had in my early teens. Trying to be really optimistic.
Meanwhile Gail naughton must be updating last year’s power point presentation for hairloss congress in japan
Nothing major here just an FYI Hairclone newsletter update. I couldn’t find a link so I pasted below:
At the end of 2016 we secured initial funding for our company through Angel investments allowing us to begin in earnest and start clinical work with Bessam and his team at the Farjo Hair Institute.
Last October our first clinical partner came on board. We are inviting the best, most highly respected and experienced surgeons from around the world to join us. To date we have 9 select clinical partners and 1 banking associate who have proved invaluable for both their insight and for the funding they provide. They are helping to develop the treatment and in due course will be trained to provide the treatments exclusively at their clinics. For a list of current partners please see the website. We will be announcing more partners in the coming months.
In August we signed a contract with a licensed UK cell bank. We are now working together to expand their license with the Human Tissue Authority to include hair.
We signed an agreement with a licensed UK contract manufacturing facility in the summer and we are establishing manufacturing costings for them to expand the follicle cells when we are ready to use them in the clinic.
Many people have asked about Crowdfunding and we had hoped to have been able to offer this in 2017. However, getting all the paperwork in place to allow us to do this is taking longer than we expected, but we are still working on it and will get a Crowdfunding Campaign up and running as soon as possible
The science
Over the summer we carried out some work into the best ways to cryopreserve hair follicles. Patients that were undergoing hair transplant procedures at the Farjo Institute in Manchester consented to us using some of their hair follicles for research. These follicles were cryopreserved at the clinic in over ten different ways using a unique liquid nitrogen free controlled rate freezer. The preserved follicles were then shipped to Claire Higgins’ lab where she carefully thawed them and together we determined which cryopreserving method to proceed with.
To enable our clinical partners and their patients to access this banking service we have been developing and testing the best ways of shipping hair follicles. The hair follicles that have been shipped to date have arrived healthy and workable.
Some of our Clinical partners have been carrying out studies using micro dissected hair follicles on volunteers. This work has been helpful in understanding how to implant the cells.
We are very excited to be co-funding Summik Limbu as a PhD student. She will be working in Claire Higgins’ lab at Imperial College, London and will be supervised by Claire and Paul. Her project title is ‘The role of hair follicle dermis in follicular neogenesis’ . Her project will serve to increase our understanding of the use of dermal papilla cells as a cell therapy for hair regeneration.
I am on their email list (pretty sure), but did not get this. Thanks.
Any news about the congress in kyoto?
folliclethought.com listed two interesting new players:
1- SWITCH BIOTECH
http://www.switch-biotech.com/Clinical%20Development.html
2- Brickell Biotech
http://www.brickellbio.com/pipeline.html
Let us wish them successful trials
Both companies have bad websites…Switch has not even decided on compound name. Some interesting discussion from Noisette on Switch here –
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/threads/follica-new-patent-published-2017-needling-device-and-drug-applicator.107370/page-4
Samumed has finished phase 2 of his clinical trials.
https://www.samumed.com/pipeline/default.aspx
We will have more news soon.
Paul how do you know it’s completed? It just says phase 2. Nothing about starting phase 3 unfortunately. I think it’s been like this for almost a year if I’m not mistaken.
Aclaris has Financial results on November 7th maybe they will say something about Soft JAK for AGA.
Nasa_rs,
If any mention will be made, it would just be a brief statement about Aclaris patent portfolio.
But Aclaris is definitely onto something with those soft jaks.
Hopefully they will begin the trials shortly(although I have a feeling that they already know abut topical functionality)