Hair Loss Cure 2020 | Hair loss blog with the latest news updates.

2015 Word Congress for Hair Research (WCHR) Updates

— Update: Below is the unbelievable before and after image from Histogen’s Dr. Gail Naughton’s presentation that everyone is talking about (Edit: Image was later removed from source site).

— The best place to get updates remains Hellouser’s thread on the HLT forums. He is apparently back in Canada and fatigued at present, but will slowly update that thread (or perhaps create new threads on different companies in that portion of the HLT forums). He is going to load his audio files somewhere outside the forums too.

— Samumed came out yet another press release today, summarizing its presentation at the Miami Congress. I am getting more optimistic about the company’s unique SM04554 topical product that tackles hair loss via the Wnt pathway. At present, the company has only concluded that the product is very safe based on its recently completed 300 person trial (interestingly, one of the co-organizers of the 2015 WCHR, Dr. WIlma Bergfeld, was involved in this trial via the Cleveland center).

Actual data on new hair growth will come out as it becomes available, which I am hoping will be in early 2016. The conclusion of the press release is encouraging, even if not pertaining to humans: “SM04554 has been shown to generate new hair follicles and increase hair count in multiple animal models.” At the same time, we have to be wary from past experiences that all these press releases could very well be just a means to attract publicity and funding. The final product could at best always end up being no better than Rogaine.

— I am disappointed that the 2015 WCHR Twitter account has been completely silent during and after the Congress. It is unlikely that they will publish anything this week either, but maybe it is still worth keeping an eye on that account before it ends in Twitter purgatory. Maybe “Helllouser” should get the wwww.twitter.com/2016WCHR account now while no-one has it and then tell the Japanese organizers of next year’s Congress that he will do a much better job of updating it?

— I discussed Allergan twice in this blog recently (see here and here) and it seems like the company is now definitely merging with Pfizer. Together, the new entity will be by far the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. Too early to tell how if at all this will impact the release of Allergan’s Bimatoprost and Setipiprant drugs to treat hair loss.

— Replicel usually publishes its latest presentation on its website and announces them via its Twitter account.

— Histogen remains the big mystery. A few months ago, most people had given up on it. Then things changed and I wrote this post. Now “Hellouser” is saying that he was very impressed with their presentation. I am really looking forward to his interview with CEO Gail Naughton.

An interesting week in hair loss, with the highlight being a 3D printed comb to regrow hair.

3D Printed Comb to Treat Hair Loss

— An update on the 3D printed comb to treat hair loss from Technion University in Israel. The user injects the comb device with an enzyme that triggers bacteria on the scalp to secrete a substance that breaks down dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Both the comb and syringe are designed to be reusable.

Note that the DHT-inactivating enzyme is 3α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3α-HSD), which I covered in detail on this blog. More information can be found on Technion’s project overview page.

— 3D Printing of hair fibers. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (US) have devised an groundbreaking new method for creating lifelike hair fibers. The only requirement is an inexpensive fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer.

— I discussed the important work of the Rendl Lab and Dr. Michael Rendl a few months ago. Several weeks ago, it was announced that Dr. Rendl’s team have created an online database that will allow researchers to study the interactions between hair follicles, stem cells and their surrounding environment. This database is called Hair-GEL (gene expression library). It is worth playing around with this database even if like myself you do not understand or recognize the names of most of the relevant genes. This sort of open source project is extremely encouraging.

— Yet one more positive report on Adenosine and hair. Make sure to read my post on Shiseido and Adenosine from last year.

— Christopher1 on Hairsite has been testing out topical Tofacitinib to tackle his hair loss (as well as his vitiligo per another of his posts). Worth bookmarking that thread, but do not emulate him. Too risky in my opinion.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— A great new face transplant success story about ex-firefighter Patrick Hardison. He also got new hair and I wonder if it will grow as long as the original stellar hair from the donor? The most interesting quote in the article is the following:

“Of the roughly 30 patients who have received partial or full face transplants, Rodriguez said some three to five patients have died after rejection.”

I was unaware of this fact and had assumed that nobody ever died from these procedures. I thought the worst case scenario was that the new face would be rejected (without any death). Or that in the long run someone would have a higher chance of getting cancer and other medical problems due to taking the anti-rejection/ immunosuppressive medications for years. Hopefully these death rates become zero as scientists gain more knowledge with each new patient. And perhaps in the future it might also no longer be necessary to take immunosuppressants.

— The heart is just a pump. My father recently needed to get two stents put into an artery after a heart attack, so this subject is especially interesting to me.

— Interesting CRISPR related articles are now being published on an almost daily basis and it is hard for me to only pick 1 or 2 every month. The best one was published today and includes interviews with some of the world’s leading geneticists. The New Yorker had a good one this week titled “Gene Hackers“. Editas Medicine will commence CRISPR gene editing trials to treat a rare form of blindness in 2017.

— And finally, a new TED video on DNA editing from CRISPR co-pioneer Jennifer Doudna.