Category Archives: Stanford University

Oro Laboratory at Stanford: Hair Loss Research

Some time ago I had read about hair loss research being conducted at the Oro Laboratory at Stanford University, but my initial impression from seeing their website was that the lab’s main focus was related to cancer research.

Oro Laboratory at Stanford

However, recently I decided to revisit their site and discovered two interesting things in the process. First, per their publications page, it seems like they published close to 15 studies related to hair loss between 2000 and 2013. This is quite impressive, especially when considering that they only published around 50 studies in total during that period of time.

In fact I find it rather strange that they focused so much of their work on hair loss. I would have guessed that research and funding grants are not easily available for hair loss related work? Or maybe Bill Gates is correct in his claim that baldness research gets a lot more funding than justified? Unfortunately, Oro Labs did not publish any hair loss related research in 2014.  Hopefully 2015 will be different.

The second thing I discovered is that Stanford has a special hair loss clinic, with the sole doctor at the clinic being Dr. Anthony Oro, after whom the Oro Laboratory is named. It seems like Dr. Oro is very passionate about hair loss and perhaps this is because he is losing some hair himself? Or perhaps it is just because the hedgehog pathway is linked to both hair follicle formation as well as to certain cancers, so there is significant research overlap?

If you are concerned about hair loss and are in California or other nearby states, I would recommend visiting the hair clinic at Stanford University and talking to Dr. Oro. After all, how many other universities in the world have their very own hair clinic in addition to a laboratory that does significant hair loss related research?

I very much doubt that most other famous hair loss researchers in the world also meet with patients. If I happen to visit California in the near future, I will probably try to see Dr. Oro prior to doing any sightseeing.