Category Archives: National Taiwan University Hospital

Taiwan Start’s World’s First Human Study on Hair Cloning

I have lived or traveled in many different countries around the world. And I have lived in a few very multicultural and multi-ethnic cities in my lifetime. From these experiences, one conclusion that I have reached is that on a per capita basis, hair loss is of most concern to Asians.

When I say Asians, I don’t just mean East Asians (Chinese, Japanese and Koreans). I also include South Asians (i.e., Bangladeshis, Burmese, Filipinos, Indians, Indonesians, Pakistanis, Thais, Vietnamese etc). Since 60 percent of all people in the world reside in Asia as defined above, I had to emphasize that on a per capita basis hair loss is of most distress to people in this region.

Reasons for this include the fact that balding rates are much lower in Asians than in Caucasians, so one really stands out when losing hair. And the fact that head shaving is not nearly as common and fashionable among Asians as among people of African descent. Moreover, balding rates in the young are increasing rapidly in Asia.

In annual lists of countries with the most plastic surgery procedures (on a per capita basis), Asian nations such as South Korea and Taiwan always seem to be near the top. And Thailand is renowned for cosmetic procedure related medical tourism.

Hair Cloning Study in Taiwan

In any case, it is therefore not surprising that such a significant amount of hair multiplication and hair cloning related research has been coming out of Asia in recent years. The latest is from Taiwan, where the world’s first human hair cloning study/experiment is underway in which around 400 men and women will have their own scalp’s dermal papillae cells cultured in a lab and then implanted into their scalp.

The study is being undertaken at the National Taiwan University Hospital. Successful results have already been shown in animals, and it seems like human testing in Taiwan is less restricted than in the US or Western Europe. Hopefully, the results of this study will be positive with no side effects.

The person who is leading this study is Sung-Jan Lin. You can find some of his research papers on Google Scholar. It seems like the study was originally supposed to commence in May 2006 per this clinical trials overview and I am surprised at such a lengthy delay.

Daily Mail also has an article about this ground breaking development.