Funding Desmond to go to WCHR 2014

[nameless]

No. Only last year did we get confirmation from them about being in Phase II. But theres no concrete evidence if they've finished Phase IIa/IIb or general II or if they started Phase II last year. It's all just smoke and shadows from them.

You've got that right. I can't tell what's going on with them and that makes me think that they are not satisfied with their treatment results.

But then again they also say that they can grow new fully-functioning follicles consistently so that makes me think they have a pretty good treatment. You see, it's harder to grow new follicles than to get already existing follicles to grow better hairs so if they can grow new fully-functional follicles then they likely can also rehabilitate your follicles that are producing shabby hairs.

The things they say/do seem to contradict other things that they say/do. Hence, I can't figure out what is going on with them and sometimes I think that they're shutting down.

I guess if nothing else at the 2014 hair loss congress they may at least clear up whether or not they're shutting down.

[hellouser]

Desmond, I sent you a heads up about me getting in touch with Dr. Lauster's student Beren Atac. I'm just about ready to fire off some emails requesting a moment of the researchers time while in South Korea.

Arashi, have you been in touch with any of the researchers?

[hellouser]

Haven't they been saying that they're in phase 2 for about 3 years now? It seems like they've been in phase 2 since forever.

No. Only last year did we get confirmation from them about being in Phase II. But theres no concrete evidence if they've finished Phase IIa/IIb or general II or if they started Phase II last year. It's all just smoke and shadows from them.

[sdsurfin]

questions

Haven't they been saying that they're in phase 2 for about 3 years now? It seems like they've been in phase 2 since forever.

The stem cell stuff has largely been answered through emails- basically they are learning a lot but still are not able to make DP cells from scratch, which is necessary. Making a follicle seems possible according to researchers but is still quite a ways off.

I think follica might be the only promising thing out there cure-wise, so definitely try to press costarellis for some kind of outlook. im sure he wont give details, but maybe talking to him in person you can get a sense of where they are at and if that's a hopeless venture. My sense is that if they havent come out with anything since 2006, then they have probably encountered serious obstacles. i emailed with dr. garza, who works with costarellis, and he didn't seem to think there was a cure coming anytime soon, as he is still trying to figure out ways to maniuplate the pgd2 pathway.

[nameless]

Follica (in my own words) creates a hair loss solution by wounding the scalp, either by damaging the skin by some kind of cheese-grater like device or some other method of their own and adding certain growth factors after (likely via injections) like WNT proteins, perhaps FGF-9 or something else (none of us really knows whats added actually). When the scalp heals, NEW follicles are created from the benefits of the added growth factors. This means there is no harvesting of grafts, no implanting of grafts and no donor depletion. Follica announced last year they were able to create new follicles with this method, Spencer said the same on his radio show. Currently their parent company says 'Phase II' with their progress, see here:

http://www.puretechventures.com/pipeline.php

So, they're at least IN Phase II and this has been known since last year. Hopefully things have progressed beyond Phase II by now. Hopefully Desmond can get some answers from Dr. Cotsarelis at the hair congress.

Haven't they been saying that they're in phase 2 for about 3 years now? It seems like they've been in phase 2 since forever.

[hellouser]

Thank you for answering my questions Hellouser I appreciate it.



See that all sounds great but I don't understand any of it. I'm excited about Follica simply because everyone else is but I don't really understand what they're doing. I suppose what I would like is if Desmond could write a dumbed-down summary of the presentations he sees. Even if it isn't dumbed down though, I can always google words I don't understand and ask specific questions about the summary on the forum, so I guess all I'm really asking for is a summary.

Follica (in my own words) creates a hair loss solution by wounding the scalp, either by damaging the skin by some kind of cheese-grater like device or some other method of their own and adding certain growth factors after (likely via injections) like WNT proteins, perhaps FGF-9 or something else (none of us really knows whats added actually). When the scalp heals, NEW follicles are created from the benefits of the added growth factors. This means there is no harvesting of grafts, no implanting of grafts and no donor depletion. Follica announced last year they were able to create new follicles with this method, Spencer said the same on his radio show. Currently their parent company says 'Phase II' with their progress, see here:

http://www.puretechventures.com/pipeline.php

So, they're at least IN Phase II and this has been known since last year. Hopefully things have progressed beyond Phase II by now. Hopefully Desmond can get some answers from Dr. Cotsarelis at the hair congress.

[Mike K]

Thank you for answering my questions Hellouser I appreciate it.

Dr. Lauster's bioreactor for creating follicles from stem cells en mass sounds very promising. Dr. Cotsarelis' work with Follica has long been in clinical trials so thats definitely going to be interesting to hear. Dr. Jahoda's work with epithelial cells was a success last year and the missing link was solved by team china with DP cells, so the two findings should prove a working solution for creating follicles.

Desmond touched on the more interesting presentations here:

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=15636

See that all sounds great but I don't understand any of it. I'm excited about Follica simply because everyone else is but I don't really understand what they're doing. I suppose what I would like is if Desmond could write a dumbed-down summary of the presentations he sees. Even if it isn't dumbed down though, I can always google words I don't understand and ask specific questions about the summary on the forum, so I guess all I'm really asking for is a summary.

[hellouser]

How confident are they that Pilofocus will be available next year?

Words from Artista and email replies from Dr. Wesley's team. Small sessions are supposed to be available by end of this year apparently.

What seems to be the most exciting thing at the congress?

Dr. Lauster's bioreactor for creating follicles from stem cells en mass sounds very promising. Dr. Cotsarelis' work with Follica has long been in clinical trials so thats definitely going to be interesting to hear. Dr. Jahoda's work with epithelial cells was a success last year and the missing link was solved by team china with DP cells, so the two findings should prove a working solution for creating follicles.

Desmond touched on the more interesting presentations here:

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=15636

[Mike K]

How confident are they that Pilofocus will be available next year? What seems to be the most exciting thing at the congress?

[hellouser]

You're questions are not relevant to whats being presented at the congress. Pilofocus will not be there and neither will regeneration be addressed. You could, somewhat, consider Follica as regeneration considering that it wounds, adds a chemical, heals and creates new follicles but NOT at the expense of existing Follicles.

However, I'll answer your questions:

I would be most interested in any of the following:
1. Surgery which produces no scarring whatsoever including white dots.

Pilofocus will address that next year as a commercially available treatment.

Watch this:

https://vimeo.com/77919975

password: piloscopy

2. Reliable regeneration of the donor area so that running out of donor hair is no longer a risk

This is addressed in the Pilofocus presentation. Take it with a grain of salt though, as all regeneration claims to date have been bullshit (Dr. Gho retracted his numbers from his website, Dr. Cole's photographs dont show much if any regeneration at all, etc).

3. Any treatment topical or otherwise with no (or less) systemic side effects

CB-03-01 is the only topical to look forward to. It won't be at the congress.

[Mike K]

Personally I don't know enough about this stuff to put together any specific, intelligent questions to be asked, but I would like a basic, dumbed down summary of the future treatments, surgical advancements, etc. that are discussed. I would appreciate knowing a realistic time frame on anything presented as well.

I would be most interested in any of the following:
1. Surgery which produces no scarring whatsoever including white dots.
2. Reliable regeneration of the donor area so that running out of donor hair is no longer a risk
3. Any treatment topical or otherwise with no (or less) systemic side effects

Any information on anything related to any of this including the method, realistic time frame, and plausibility summarized in laymans terms would be awesome.

Thank you in advance Desmond. Best of luck to you.

[efedrez]

Great news Desmond, thank you for all the hard work preparing the trip!

[Thinning87]

Amazing - thanks for all your work!

[Kurtis]

Thank you so much Desmond

[Desmond84]

Hi guys.

Sorry for not updating sooner. Preparation for this trip has beenvery time consuming.

So first and foremost we just hit $2118.67. That is amazing Thank you guys. More funding is coming everyday and that is wonderful.

As for the preparation for the trip:

- Flight from Seoul to Jeju Island is booked.
- I just got travel insurance yesterday.
- My mobile network carrier also didn't allow international roaming so I had to get a travelsim which was quite difficult indeed to figure out lol!
- I got the camera and tripod on Saturday.
- Sunday I got a crash course on how to use and how to edit videos on Adobe premiere pro.
- Hellouser my friends suggested using my phone as the voice recorder. We did a test run at a staff meeting and the audio quality is uncanny. So I guess that will be my back up.
- I have been also reading past research papers to prepare for the interviews.

It's been a very hectic week indeed

Also guys please start a new thread regarding who you want interviewed and what are the burning questions you would like me to ask.

I'm flying out on Saturday morning and will arrive in Seoul at 9pm Seoul time. I'll let you know as soon as I arrive.

Cheers guys. Let's make all these efforts count

Desmond