Category Archives: Kevin McElwee

Harklinikken and other Hair News

A few days later than usual due to the major new developments that I had to discuss in my prior two posts.

Harklinikken

— Denmark’s Harklinikken and its natural hair growth products are definitely not a miracle cure for hair loss. However, it seems like it may have some benefits per the NY Times. And the company has major expansion plans for the US market. Their product is derived from cow’s milk and various plants. Among Harklinikken’s major proponents is Ricki Lake.

— I covered Dr. Lu Le and his team’s groundbreaking discovery related to the biological processes behind both hair loss and grey hair in a post from May of this year. Now their local Dallas newspaper has much more detailed coverage of Dr. Le and his work. An interesting read.

— The first ever International Hair Restoration Conference was held in Vancouver, Canada in April 2017. During the past two months, the organizer has been releasing some interesting videos from the conference, including from the reclusive Dr. Kevin McElwee (Replicel) and Dr. Ray Woods (FUE hair transplant pioneer). Note that Dr. McElwee wrote most of the material on keratin.com (and he used to run the now nonexistent hair loss forums on that site). Moreover, he is a co-author of an interesting new paper on hair loss  titled “Experimental and early investigational drugs for androgenetic alopecia“.

— Histogen’s proprietary “multipotent cell conditioned media” will be marketed by leading global cosmetics concern Allergan via the Regenica line of product. Although not related to Histogen’s main Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC) hair loss product, it is worth noting that Allergan has several hair loss products (Bimatoprost and Setipiprant) that it is also developing. Perhaps they could purchase the rights to the HSC product in the future too?

Very interesting study from Iran. Conclusion: “Our data showed that injection of a combination of adult human cultured dermal papilla and epithelial cells could induce hair growth in nude mice”.

And now on to medical items of interest:

US scientists make genetically modified embryo. First ever case in the US.

Breakthrough device heals organs via touch. Extremely hard to believe, but the research comes from a reputable university. The device delivers new DNA or RNA into living skin cells in order to change their function. Video here.

— Scientists successfully make old human cells younger via lengthening telomeres.

— Some retinas are indestructible and do not need regeneration:

Trump Hair Eclipse

Harvesting the blood of the young.

New high resolution 3D printing of live tissues.

Blood test detects Alzheimer’s plaques in brain.

Stem cell brain implants could extend lifespan 10-15 percent.

3D printing revolutionizing plastic surgery.

23rd World Congress of Dermatology: Vancouver, Canada

23rd World Congress of Dermatology.
23rd World Congress of Dermatology.

23rd World Congress of Dermatology

The 23rd World Congress of Dermatology starts on June 8, 2015 and will run through June 13, 2015 in Vancouver, Canada. It is run by the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS). The ILDS is an umbrella organisation for professional dermatology organisations of all sizes around the world. You can follow their Twitter account for conference updates.

I was not paying too much attention to this conference before. When I first browsed through their website some time ago, it seemed like most of the subjects would be non-hair related.

However, when I went through their website in more detail today, I noticed that the Congress President was a hair transplant surgeon by the name of Dr. Jerry Shapiro. More importantly, one of the main (plenary) sessions will be presented by the esteemed Dr. Elaine Fuchs, who I have discussed a few times on this blog before. Amond the main sponsors includes L’Oréal and Allergan.

There is a workshop on hair biology on Tuesday that will be led by the renowned Dr. George Cotsarelis, Replicel’s scientist Dr. Kevin McElwee and Dr. Amos Gilhar of Israel. This might end up being the most interesting part of the conference for blog readers.

There is an interesting presentation on the neglected field of ethnic hair disorders by South African professor Nonhlanhla Khumalo. Lebanese doctor Mazen Kurban (who has co-authored a book chapter with Dr. Angela Christiano in the past) will present on genetic hair and nail disorders.

Other presentations of interest include: one on hair disorders; one on hair transplants; one on telogen effluvium; and one on cicatricial alopecias. Several of the laser light therapy related presentations will hopefully also discuss their increase use for regrowing scalp hair. Like FDA cleared devices such as the HairMax Lasercomb for example.