Cassiopea, Drew Brees, FAK Inhibitor, Wound Healing

FAK Inhibitors, Cassiopea and Drew Brees

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An interesting week in hair loss news warrants a wide ranging post.

Update: Make sure to read the comments from FAK inhibitor study co-author Dr. Kellen Chen in the comments section of this post.

FAK Inhibitor for Hair Loss

In recent days, a few people discussed this Stanford University research (first posted by “DrPhil”) on our hair loss chat.

FAK Inhibitor Hair Growth
FAK inhibitor skin healing and hair follicle regrowth at 180 days. Source: Nature Communications.

The researchers found that blocking mechanical signaling via FAK (focal adhesion kinase) inhibition promotes regenerative skin healing. Moreover, this restored skin includes hair follicle regrowth in addition to normal collagen fiber architecture. Most importantly, this hair regrowth was shows in both mice and pigs.

This is significant because porcine skin has striking similarities to human skin. The researchers used a pharmacologic inhibitor of FAK (FAKI) called VS-6062. This pharmacologic blockade of mechanical signaling resulted in skin with less scar formation and more hair.

The FAK was delivered to wounded skin using a biodegradable and biocompatible hydrogel scaffold.

Better than Verteporfin?

Per @DrPhil on our chat:

“This VS-6062 FAK inhibitor does the same thing as verteporfin, but it inhibits a target which is upstream of YAP. Verteporfin only inhibits YAP, while VS-6062 inhibits FAK (which controls YAP) and also other targets. FAK inhibitors can also be applied topically, with no injections required. Moreover, VS-6062 has already gone through Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials to treat cancer.”

According the Stanford team, porcine serum FAKI concentrations following local treatment were almost undetectable. In fact they were less than 1% of the maximum tolerated human dose observed in a previous Phase 1 clinical trial. So safety issues are likely to be nonexistent in my opinion.

Interestingly, the earlier verteporfin research was also undertaken at Stanford, via the Longaker Lab.

Cassiopea Topline Results for Female Hair Loss

We are eagerly awaiting Cassiopea (Italy)’s Phase 3 Trials for Breezula for androgenetic alopecia (male pattern hair loss). However, several days ago, the company posted an encouraging update on its Phase 2 proof of concept trial for clascoterone use in female hair loss patients. Clascoterone is a topical androgen receptor inhibitor, and its hair growth benefits are almost certainly going to be greater in men.

The trials encompassed 293 women aged between 18-55. The were split into four groups: 5.0% and 7.5% twice daily application of clascoterone solution; versus twice daily 2% Minoxidil or vehicle. Only the subgroup with women less than 30 years of age receiving twice daily application of 5% clascoterone solution showed statistically significant differences from baseline in total hair count at month 6. No safety issues were detected.

Cassiopea Clascoterone Hair Loss
Cassiopea pipeline for clascoterone to treat hair loss.

Drew Brees Hair Transplant

Drew Brees is a superstar quarterback in American Football (NFL). The 42-year old retired in 2021 after a stellar career. He was also well known for his early hair loss and receding hairline…until this week. Looks like he got a hair transplant with excellent results.

Drew Brees Hair Transplant
Drew Brees hair before and after.

I have discussed numerous other celebrity hair transplant results over the years. Among the most famous athletes who got hair transplants include Wayne Rooney and Brian Urlacher. Possibly also Lebron James.

Geoff Hamilton, Stemson Therapeutics

Interview with Stemson CEO Geoff Hamilton

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I have covered Stemson Therapeutics (San Diego, USA) and its founder Alexey Terskikh (see interview) since 2015. My last post on the company was updated in 2020 when they raised $7.5 million from Fortunis Capital and Allergan.

Since then, Stemson raised another $15 million in series A funding, courtesy of AbbVie (which acquired Allergan in 2020).

Geoff Hamilton

Stemson Therapeutics’ CEO is Geoff Hamilton. In July 2021, he  wrote an interesting post on Linkedin titled “Stemson Therapeutics is working to make hair loss a problem of the past.” It was interesting to read about the origin of the name “Stemson” (portmanteau of “Stem” and “Samson”).

Key section:

Per Mr. Hamilton, curing hair loss is inordinately complex and will involve a multi-disciplinary approach, including:

  • Cellular reprogramming.
  • Biomaterial engineering.
  • Tissue engineering.
  • Machine learning and analysis of biological data.
  • Robotic transplantation solutions.

In a recent article, Dr. Cenk Sumen (Stemson’s Chief Technology Officer) discussed other difficulties. He stated that companies such as Stemson that are working on induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) therapies face problems getting tailored equipment for automation.

Earlier today, San Diego based “Market Podcast” published an interview with Mr. Hamilton on YouTube. Thanks to reader “Jan Miedza” for notifying us and even posting the first comment to that video.

From the interview, it is clear that Stemson is still years away from getting a product to market. They are yet to even start human clinical trials. However, the company is professional, well funded and supported by biopharmaceutical industry behemoth AbbVie. They have hired world class scientists, bioengineers, bioinformaticians and more.

Moreover, Dr. Terskikh’s research has already been going on for over a decade (including in Russia). Also of note, Dr. Hamilton mentions several times how biotechnology and stem cell research today is significantly ahead of where it was just a decade ago. His company’s progress is benefitting from these recent technological advances.