Tsuji labs teams with Japanese pharma company!

[TJT]

http://asia.nikkei.com/Tech-Science/...hair-loss-cure

Excellent news, because in my opinion Tsuji looked to have the most solid cutting edge results and technology, having grown healthy human hair on bald mice. They are very close, and this partnership should enable them to commercialize the technology. I'm hoping that between Shiseido and this partnership we will see the cure in the next five years, at least in Japan. Stay positive!

[Arashi]

Excellent news indeed ! Will take years of course before this will lead to something and might very well lead to nothing but it's something, I have always had a lot of faith in Tsuji lab.

[Swooping]

Yeah I'm going to follow this closely. In my opinion this could be the first treatment that could potentially lead to something great. It's going to take a while and I hope he will be able to move the treatment to human clinical trials. Remember this promising study is already from 2011; http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal...comms1784.html.

I asked him some questions a few months ago when this news wasn't out yet;

- What advancements have been made since that study?

We developed a novel hair regeneration using a bioengineered hair follicle germ transplantation. Our method have several advancements such as the control of eruption hair density and hair color, compared to previous studies.


- While success was shown in the rodent model, how do you predict such a bioengineered hair follicle germ will behave when injected into the scalp of a human?

I think that our treatment will succeed in human as well as rodent model. We will isolate the cells from the back of head of scalp patients and then transplant into scalp area. The bioengineered hair follicle will be erupt in the area and the hair is same to that in the back of head.


- Before we can be successful we will also need to be able to mass produce these bioengineered hair follicle germs, right? Based on current advancements it seems to be difficult to culture DPC, because they lose their signature in vitro. How do such problems apply to the current method described in the study?

As you pointed, the problem of our project is the expansion of stem cells in the bulge region and dermal papillae. In these problems, the expansion of epithelial bulge stem cells is critical issue. Thus, we are now trying to expand the stem cells.


- When can we expect that such a method will find their way to testing (clinical trials) in humans? How close are we?

We would like to realize human clinical study at 2020. We will overcome the several hurdles and realize human clinical study within 5 years.

Anyway I'm pretty excited for this, it gives real hope.

[FooFighter]

Yeah I'm going to follow this closely. In my opinion this could be the first treatment that could potentially lead to something great. It's going to take a while and I hope he will be able to move the treatment to human clinical trials. Remember this promising study is already from 2011; http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal...comms1784.html.

I asked him some questions a few months ago when this news wasn't out yet;



Anyway I'm pretty excited for this, it gives real hope.

Can you email him again?

[Swooping]

Can you email him again?

I did.. Lesson; don't ever trust press releases of some "news website".

Unfortunately, the press release was not correct, because the reporter misunderstood to our collaboration thesis. We are planning to study on the development of human skin with correct skin appendage in plastic wells and do the drug screening by using the assay system. However, we have decided the collaboration with other big company to develop the hair regeneration including preclinical study and in human. We will do the press-release on the middle April in this year. Thank you for your interests to our study. Sincerely, Takashi

Still good news though. This is the first step towards possibly something great in the future. Hope he gets to the human clinical trials as soon as possible.

[TJT]

I did.. Lesson; don't ever trust press releases of some "news website".


Still good news though. This is the first step towards possibly something great in the future. Hope he gets to the human clinical trials as soon as possible.

Okay, sounds like this will still happen, but next month instead of this month. The real cure will most likely come either from an approach like Tsuji's or something like Histogen/Replicel so it's exciting stuff, though still some years away.

[TJT]

Also can any of you informed guys confirm whether Tsuji is also involved with Shiseido's Phase 2 trial of Replicel's technology? Would make me feel "warm and fuzzy" to know someone like him is involved because he might make some game-changing improvements to the protocol.

[Swooping]

Also can any of you informed guys confirm whether Tsuji is also involved with Shiseido's Phase 2 trial of Replicel's technology? Would make me feel "warm and fuzzy" to know someone like him is involved because he might make some game-changing improvements to the protocol.

No he isn't.

[kuba197]

Four years since that study http://www.nature.com/articles/srep00424?WT..

You have six years to bring it to the market Takashi...
We believe in you...
Become our HAIR GOD

[NeedHairASAP]

meh, to me this looks like just another cushy paycheck... so Tsuji can go back to slowly moving forward at a snails pace and cashing his nice paycheck each week.

The ONLY good thing coming out of this is the investing company may put pressure on them to move faster so they can recoup their investment, whereas there was probably very little pressure coming from the government to see a ROOPM (return on other peoples money).

If the investors don't put serious pressure on moving forward ASAP, it will be business-as-usual: work 25 hrs a week, announce delays, cash weekly paycheck, structure trials that put the researcher's scientific curiosity before first, rather than designing a trial schedule that gets you to market quickest... so hopefully this lights a fire under their asses.

Otherwise, there is not much to see here. Just another research group riding the grant-money-gravy train.