Follica

[nickk]

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smar...male-baldness/


In the movie Duplicity, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play corporate spies battling to gain access to a chemical formula solving baldness, which will make them millions. Things don’t work out for them in the film—the formula turns out to be bogus. That’s normally where stories about treatments for baldness end up. But a real life company called Follica thinks it has a new twist.

The company, The Scientist explains, was founded by a group of scientists who have been working on this problem for several years. The breakthrough they’re betting on is based upon a 2007 finding published in Nature showing that new hair follicles formed when mice regrew wounded tissue. A wound “induces an embryonic phenotype in skin,” they explain in the paper, and that process allows a window for creating new hair follicles. ”These findings suggest treatments for wounds, hair loss and other degenerative skin disorders,” the researchers wrote.

The fixing hair loss part of that, of course, would be the jackpot. The Scientist reports on what we know about the company’s progress:


Although Follica has released few details on their proprietary procedure, the general idea is clear: their patented minimally invasive “skin perturbation” device removes the top layers of skin, causing the underlying skin cells to revert to a stem-like state, after which a molecule is applied topically to direct the formation of new hair follicles.

Indeed, Follica has already done preclinical and clinical trials, says [co-founder Bernat] Olle, “all of which confirm that we can consistently create new hair follicles in mice and in humans. As far as I know, no other approach has been able to achieve that.”

This summer, co-founder George Cotsarelis, whose lab made that original 2007 breakthrough, published another Nature Medicine paper pinpointing a specific protein called fibroblast growth factor 9 that increased new hair follicle formation by a factor of two or three when overstimulated in mice, the Scientist writes. The next steps will be to test this finding in human skin grafts and, if all goes well, perform clinical trials.

Scientists have been trying to solve the mystery of the missing hair follicle for decades, however, and many other labs are pursuing this endeavor, as attested by the more than 200 clinical trials currently listed by the National Institutes of Heath. Whichever lab—if any—eventually cracks that puzzle, will surely reap the millions Duplicity imagined—along the thanks of millions of self-conscious men around the world.


Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smar...#ixzz2g7JTptHv
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[redy]

"self conscious men"

If hair/hairline wasn't such a factor in how other people see me, I would give zero shits about hair... the hair isn't for me!

..but nice blog find

[TheSwingingGate]

Interesting.
I am the exact opposite.

I buzzed my hair before I started losing it, and most everyone liked it.
However, I didn't feel like myself in the long run.

If I had to shave my head, and I think it is headed that way, I feel like I will go thru and identity crisis.

Come on, Follica for the win!

[hellouser]

Whichever lab—if any—eventually cracks that puzzle, will surely reap the millions Duplicity imagined—along the thanks of millions of self-conscious men around the world.

Self conscious men? Than why does society have such a problem with bald men?

I think society needs a cure for being full of shit.

[youngin]

"self conscious men"

If hair/hairline wasn't such a factor in how other people see me, I would give zero shits about hair... the hair isn't for me!

..but nice blog find

It's not such a factor, and the hair IS for you. To satisfy your perceived issue. I am a NW6 and own it, so I know all about how people view me.. and it's not bad at all. Would I look better with hair? Probably, but it's not gonna kill me.

[youngin]

Self conscious men? Than why does society have such a problem with bald men?

I think society needs a cure for being full of shit.

Assholes have a problem with anyone who's different. It's the American way.

[garethbale]

I'm a bit confused. I was under the impression that Follica had conducted clinical trials (which the article states), but then goes on to say:

'''The next steps will be to test this finding in human skin grafts and, if all goes well, perform clinical trials''

So have they performed clinical trials or not, and do they need to perform more?

If it's the latter, this will be a good few more years yet.

[bigentries]

I'm a bit confused. I was under the impression that Follica had conducted clinical trials (which the article states), but then goes on to say:

'''The next steps will be to test this finding in human skin grafts and, if all goes well, perform clinical trials''

So have they performed clinical trials or not, and do they need to perform more?

If it's the latter, this will be a good few more years yet.

No one seems to know, some articles even published they were going into Phase III, Follica is too secretive

[TheSwingingGate]

I read it as - they have already conducted trials, but may need to conduct more with the discovery of FGF9.

[rdawg]

It's not such a factor, and the hair IS for you. To satisfy your perceived issue. I am a NW6 and own it, so I know all about how people view me.. and it's not bad at all. Would I look better with hair? Probably, but it's not gonna kill me.

There's nothing wrong with going bald at an older age.

anyone that is beyond 30 years old and is a NW2 or whatever shouldn't even care, people around that age don't care at all!

but for the younger people like myself it definitely sucks a bit, been balding since 18(im a NW3) im 21 now, while people dont hate it, it definitely hurts your look and that age range is a little more judgemental than say the 25+ range.

still though I dont hide it too much! you have to own it and get a person that likes you for you, not just because you have hair!