The 23rd ISHRS annual meeting just started today in Chicago, Illinois. Unlike in years past, I did not have time to write a post about this important event prior to it commencing. In any case, I will update this page with more details over the next several days as the conference proceeds. The meeting runs from September 10-13.
Day 1
— By far the biggest and most exciting news thus far on the first day is Kerastem’s update. I discussed Kerastem in detail last year. In the new update, their small trial on 9 patients in the UK resulted in around a 20 percent hair growth from just 1 injection in all patients. It does seem, however, that the treatment will not help those that are totally bald. These results clearly support growing research from recent years that suggests a very strong link between fat cells and hair cells.
Some key quotes from Dr. David Perez-Meza:
“The authors reported a 100% patient response rate to the Kerastem Therapy at 6-months.
We are very pleased with these initial clinical outcomes, as they represent results that are on par or better than those of traditional medical approaches to hair loss.”
— A really interesting summary of the finally available Okuda Papers from 1939 was presented by Dr. Jimenez. In those papers, the now deceased Dr. Shojui Okuda covered his own research related to hair transplantation as well as older groundbreaking research from the 1800s!
— Valerie Horsley’s hair follicle stem cells presentation summary.
Day 2
— Dr. John Kahen’s PRP summary. Only a single patient, but great photos. Significant increase in hair density after 6 months and, interestingly, the patient saw his light brown hair become dark brown.
— Dr. Jerry Cooley presented something on bio-enhancements. Link not yet available.
— It was announced on Twitter that this was the largest attended ISHRS meeting to date in its 23 years of existence.