Monthly Archives: August 2015

Dermal Papilla Cells, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Michael Rendl, Rendl Lab

The Rendl Lab — Understanding Dermal Papilla Cells

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The New York based Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) is a highly respected medical school.  It includes departments that specialize in stem cells, regenerative medicine, and dermatology.  Recently, I found out that the school is also home to the Rendl Lab, led by Dr. Michael Rendl (who seems to originate from Austria and has worked under the renowned Dr. Elaine Fuchs at her lab in the past).  Also see Dr. Michael Rendl’s bio on the Mount Sinai Hospital page.

It was quite surprising to me that the Rendl Lab places such a heavy emphasis on research related to the hair follicle, in particular, the dermal papilla cell.  Their ultimate goal is hair regeneration. In their own words, they wish to:

  • Uncover how specialized Dermal Papilla (DP) cells act as instructive niche cells for hair follicle stem cells.
  • Define how DP cells acquire the hair-inducing cell fate in the first place that sets them apart from regular skin fibroblasts.

On the Rendl Lab’s publications page, they allow anyone to access pdf versions of their articles, which is a much appreciated rarity in the medical research profession.  The lab’s research page has some interesting diagrams pertaining to dermal papilla cells.

The Rendl Lab has now been added to the world map of key hair loss research centers.

FGF-9, George Cotsarelis, PGD2

Dr. George Cotsarelis Updates Us

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Recently, one of the blog readers sent me an e-mail stating that Dr. George Cotsarelis replied to him. I then decided to resend Dr. Cotsarelis an old e-mail to which I previously got no response. My e-mail was fairly generic and I asked him about updates on various key areas of hair loss research that he might still be doing.

George Cotsarelis Responds

The below is his reply from yesterday, which might just be a generic response that he sends to everyone (since the above mentioned blog reader also received a similar response):

Thank you for your interest in my research. Rest assured that we are continuing our work on hair follicle stem cells and hair follicle regeneration in the hopes of better understanding hair growth and developing treatments for hair loss.

Re PGD2R antagonists, Kythera, recently bought by Allergan, will be working on commercialization of these compounds for treatment of male pattern baldness.

Re FGF9, a small biotech company has licensed that IP and will be pursuing its commercialization.

My lab continues to work on developing novel treatments. The largest barrier is funding.

Sincerely,
George Cotsarelis, M.D.

Note that “PGD2R antagonist” is sometimes referred to as “PGD2 antagonist”, but these two phrases are not the same thing as the “R” stands for receptor. Thanks to the commenter who corrected my initial sentence.

FGF-9 is an important growth factor with hair growth benefits. I have made several posts in the past on various other fibroblast growth factors such as FGF-2, FGF-5 and FGF-7. Also see this interesting recent study on FGF-9 and wounding.

The PGD2 treatment route is far more interesting than the FGF-9 treatment route. My conclusion from reading Dr. Cotsarelis’ e-mail is that its best we focus on Allergen (Kythera)’s future announcements. We should avoid contacting the busy Dr. Cotsarelis regularly for any new information.