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Desmond, earlier you mentioned you believed there could potentially be an effective treatment for AGA by the 2020s. Have any of the researchers you've interviewed given you a concrete estimation as to when they believe a treatment, or treatments, will be available? If so, how confident are they that it will be within the next 10-20 years?
Thank you for all the work you've been doing.Comment
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Actually they eventually are too, and also, transplanted hairs are inside of a small cylinder of skin from the back of your head. Arashi and hellouser and others are getting people way too psyched up. Arashi- the fact that tsuji made a hair follicle that was genetically human does not mean that it was a proper, cosmetic follicle with full gene expression. full gene expression is not the same as 100 percent human. Have you seen a pic of that hair?? It's tiny and meager. The hairs that they made sprout from the mouse's neck, and which look thick, were made using mouse DP cells, and are on a MOUSE. Desmond has not reported anything except for the vague statement that several teams have continued to progress with retaining DP cell inductivity. In the grand scheme of things, we already knew this, and it doesn't mean very much. All it means is that we can retain DP cell inductivity. that's it. Inductivity means that these cells have capacity to send signals to make some kind of hair.
To say that retaining DP inductivity is the same as curing baldness is like saying that culturing a certain kind of eye cell is the same as making a whole new eyeball. Making a new follicle is no less complex than making a new heart or eyeball, and it is probably more difficult to put into use, because unlike with a heart, our head is dead set against making it grow. Retaining inductivity in one type of cell doesn't mean that we can clone a whole follicle or that we can make thousands of them, or that we know if these theoretic follicles would even survive in balding scalp. Dr. Xu is a hair scientist, as is Aaron gardner. I have talked to both, and they are the ones who have clarified this for me. In order to culture and create enough follicles, DP cells need to be mass produced from stem cells, the interactions between follicle stem cells need to be precisely figured out, and then they need to figure out exactly how hair growth and cycling is signalled with the outside environment. don't hold your breath guys. Someone will most likely make A new follicle by the end of this decade. the steps between that and growing a full head of hair are huge. Like cotsarellis said, it took rogaine 8 years just to put out the foam instead of the liquid.
People on here forget that the loss of the follicle is only the tip of the iceberg. The entire scalp turns fibrotic as you bald, and it's also been shown that the fat cells in balding scalp are also prone to die off and send bad signals to the follicles. Propecia probably stops working after a while partly because that part of the scalp has been progammed since puberty to promote balding. This is why this disease has not been cured, and why it probably won't be within our lifetimes. you're dealing with a very complex set of genetic chains that commence when very young, and involve not only the follicles, but also the skin, fat cells, immune system, etc.Comment
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"According to Desmond all research groups said that this year they've all overcome that problem and can now culture DP cells while retaining all genes expressed !"
No one ever said this. Not even desmond really. The only thing we know for sure that these teams have achieved is the same as what christiano and jahoda put on the news. A greater expression of genes in DP cells. That's it. No one said anything about maintaining full gene expression. Also, even if you culture a few DP cells with full gene expression, as you keep culturing them, they degrade. Thats why Xu is trying to make DP cells from scratch, something that will take many more years. in order to make tens of thousands of follicles, you need an exponentially greater number of DP cells, and multiplying them in culture is not enough. That's why his creation of epithelial cells from IPS cells was a breakthrough. Unless desmond comes back with the news that someone has made DP cells from scratch, then there's nothing too game changing here.Comment
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End of WCHR 2014
Hey guys,
We have come to the end of the 2014 World Congress for Hair Research. I personally want to thank everyone who contributed to this project both financially and time wise. We really showed that we have the numbers to really gather the information that may contribute to a future cure. We are definitely becoming a force to be reckoned with.
A lot of the researchers at the congress were actually really impressed with the fact we were recording the talks and wanted to know how they could access it and were so happy to hear they'll be simply uploaded to youtube.
In some ways, with recording these presentations we have provided a platform for researchers to look back at some of these presentations to help drive their own projects move ahead faster.
I will be leaving Jeju Island in the morning and will be spending a few days in Hong Kong with a few friends before flying back to Australia on Friday. My aim is to at least upload the key talks by next Sunday night.
It's been a pleasure giving back to the community that helped me out when I was so lost and depressed with my own hair.
In terms of the talks, they were very scientific which will require a lot of brainstorming with the science guys on our forum to really gather what is actually happening.
The general consensus however is that the hair regeneration research is finally yielding some amazing results and we are seeing human hair follicles forming. Although there is some ironing out to do, there are at least 10 research teams that are working on these problems, which is really great indeed. I personally felt that Dr Jahoda's team are having the most in depth analysis of culturing DP hair follicles and seem to have the funding to do it. Dr Lauster's team is also approaching the follicle regeneration from a different angle through chip technology which is also fascinating indeed. Both teams are very knowledgeable and are giving very optimistic hints regarding a cure in the near future, with some of them hinting at NW7-NW1 transition if their approach succeeds in the coming years.
Thanks guys once again. And check back here next weekend for the talks.
Reporting live from Jeju Island on the last day of the congress.
Desmond.Comment
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So Desmond based on what you have seen so far what is your rough estimation on how far the research has progressed, and how long will it take for any of the potential treatments to be available and not just in the U.S.?
Again thank you for your efforts and to everyone else who contributed on this venture.Comment
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Desmond,
I haven't been around the forum for a while, I didn't see the link to donate to the cause. I'm not sure where you stand, but the information you're bringing back should be invaluable.
I know it costs a fortune to be out of your native country for a week.
If (Arashi) or anyone else could show me the link to donate, please do.
Thank you very much for all the work you did this week, greatly appreciated.
DaleComment
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Inspecs, if you go to the thread "funding Desmond to go to wchr" which is also in cutting edge / future treatments, the line is on the first page there sirComment
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So this was it Desmond. Looking forward to the presentations and maybe even more important, the report from your talk with Lauster's Team.
On behalf of the whole community I would like to thank you for all of the time, energy, effort and money (I know you still have invested some yourself) you've put into this !! We trusted in you and you showed to be the perfect man for this job, to help us out here, to be our ears and eyes on the conference and even make friends with some of the top researchers. Invaluable !
Enjoy your last few days in Hong Kong and we'll talk soon again brother !
And last but most certainly not least: a big thank you to everybody who contributed and made this possible !! We showed that we can get something done as a community, which made me really hopeful for future projects !Comment
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And special thanks to Hellouser, for all of his work, communicating with the science teams etc. Great job !!Comment
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And my own summary of what Desmond has presented us so far:
* The bad:
- Cotsarelis/Follica. He's not so far as we had hoped, seems to even have funding problems and in short doesn't seem to be the horse to bet on.
* The good:
- Lauster ! Back from the dead !
While people thought this pioneer of hair follicle engineering had switched to other research fields or even had given up, nothing turned out to be farther from the truth, they've made good progress since their breakthrough a few years ago and according to desmond they're now 'very close' to a preclinical cure.
- At least 10 international research teams are working on this, some of we (or at least I) had never heard before.
- All of the teams solved Jahoda's problem from last year and all can culture DP cells while retaining gene expression.
- Desmond reached the end goal of this trip: finding out where we currently are and identifying the roadblock that's left: what's still standing between us and a cure now it turned out pretty much everybody can culture DP cells while retaining gene expression. Awaiting his report on this.
- Desmond recorded the key speeches, we will need to analyze them, hopefully the scientific members like Boldy and Mari0s will help here too.
- Desmond made friends with some of the top researchers like those from Lauster's team, undoubtfully that's a great asset.
All-in-all a great succes !Comment
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Oh and also interesting: Desmond said that he found out why Aderans failed. Most definitely very interesting info !Comment
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Many thanks to all involved with this, with special mention going to hellouser and Desmond in particular.
I confess it's a little disheartening to hear that we may still be some ten years or so from a cure (which will place me in my forties) though there is still comfort to be found in the knowledge that it's likely I may be able to return to a NW1 at some point.
It's a shame that trials will take so long to complete; are there no territories in which they could be reduced as is the case with stem cell research in Japan?
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