casperz
Experienced Member
- Reaction score
- 25
Don't know if anyone has seen this or posted it.
How a Penn prof accidentally found a promising cure for baldness.
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/01/22/george-cotsaleris-hair-follicle-research
Man may crave the secret of eternal life. But even if that problem were solved, most gents would trade that knowledge for the answer to one question: How do I keep my hair?
George Cotsarelis, M.D. — a physician, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Hair and Scalp Clinic of Penn Medicine at Radnor — may have solutions. We're talking real answers that by 2012 may result in coaxing human skin cells into making new hair follicles that grow new hair.
Jump back to 1992 when Cotsarelis received a research fellowship to study stem cells of the follicle, their reactions to wounding and their role in hair growth and carcinogenesis (the creation of cancer).
Studying stem cells in epithelial tissue, Cotsarelis labored under the notion (as most scientists did) that these cells rarely reproduce. But with the help of lab mice, he found the opposite to be true.
"My lab studied hair follicle stem cells not necessarily toward finding the cure for baldness," says Cotsarelis. "That's not our goal. It's almost a byproduct."
Cotsarelis calls finding a cure for baldness a nonviable research model for an academic investigator. "You wouldn't be able to get funding," he laughs. "Like most research, the greatest interesting finds are purely serendipitous — things you'd never expect."
Once his name became associated with hair loss research — even at that initial level — his life as an academic became hectic. He's not complaining. That's how it works.
After identifying a method — fluorescing cells — that allowed them to identify specific genes in the stem cells, Cotsarelis' team used wounding — slicing off patches of skin in the mice — to find a genetic runway of sorts that usually stays dormant after embryonic development.
"Our next big finding was that injury provoked early development pathways for skin to make new hair follicles during wound healing," says Cotsarelis. "Adult mice were found to be developing hair follicles."
Humans can grow new hair, too — at very low levels. "It goes on but is inhibited. The evolution of man has been that all skin wounds heal as quickly as possible."
But in Cotsarelis' research, they looked for signals that allow skin to not just to repair but to make new follicles.
"We want both," says Cotsarelis of the elements of "regeneration" and "repairing."
But you can't just slice open your head and grow hair.
"Wounding alone doesn't do it — you need to push it into a growth state," notes Cotsarelis.
What previous researchers didn't find (Penn scientist Albert M. Kligman studied in this field in the 1950s), and what Cotsarelis pursued in the 2000s, was Wnt — a gene trigger, an important protein in hair development in utero that coaxes stem cells into growing hair. Block Wnts during development and you don't grow follicles. Increase it, and hair grows wild.
"If you get extra Wnts during that development you get extra follicles — wounding pushes skin into an embryonic state," explains Cotsarelis. "'Should I make a hair follicle or should I make myself into an epidermis?' is what cells say during wound healing. Our goal is to bring skin to that embryonic state. If they get Wnt, they'll make hair follicles."
Cotsarelis holds intellectual property around this through Penn. A company named Follica Inc. (Cotsarelis is on its scientific advisory board) has as its goal to develop a treatment for hair loss based on these and other growth factors.
Testing on humans has been limited. Researchers have taken human skin removed during other plastic surgery procedures and grafted the flesh onto immuno-deficient mice. After the old skin develops on these mice and it heals, they wound the skin and check for hair.
Without pinning himself to a timeline, the good doctor's estimate for Follica's treatment looks very possible for launch within the next five years. "It's impossible to know for sure, but within the next several years — two to three — there'll be a trial where we'll use a procedure with the compound to see if it works in humans," says Cotsarelis. "There will be the usual regulatory stuff after that, so perhaps in four to five years we'll have something we can offer people."
Some men would like to speed this process, but patience is key. Though I can't help wonder — would Cotaserlis make the research go quicker if he was losing his own hair?
"You know, it's funny. I was on the Today Show in 2004 after one of our papers came out, waiting to be interviewed from Philadelphia when I heard the producer ask his director if I was bald," laughs Cotsarelis. "Luckily, that's not where the motivation comes from. I have a full head of hair. But I understand how important it is to people."
How a Penn prof accidentally found a promising cure for baldness.
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/01/22/george-cotsaleris-hair-follicle-research
Man may crave the secret of eternal life. But even if that problem were solved, most gents would trade that knowledge for the answer to one question: How do I keep my hair?
George Cotsarelis, M.D. — a physician, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Hair and Scalp Clinic of Penn Medicine at Radnor — may have solutions. We're talking real answers that by 2012 may result in coaxing human skin cells into making new hair follicles that grow new hair.
Jump back to 1992 when Cotsarelis received a research fellowship to study stem cells of the follicle, their reactions to wounding and their role in hair growth and carcinogenesis (the creation of cancer).
Studying stem cells in epithelial tissue, Cotsarelis labored under the notion (as most scientists did) that these cells rarely reproduce. But with the help of lab mice, he found the opposite to be true.
"My lab studied hair follicle stem cells not necessarily toward finding the cure for baldness," says Cotsarelis. "That's not our goal. It's almost a byproduct."
Cotsarelis calls finding a cure for baldness a nonviable research model for an academic investigator. "You wouldn't be able to get funding," he laughs. "Like most research, the greatest interesting finds are purely serendipitous — things you'd never expect."
Once his name became associated with hair loss research — even at that initial level — his life as an academic became hectic. He's not complaining. That's how it works.
After identifying a method — fluorescing cells — that allowed them to identify specific genes in the stem cells, Cotsarelis' team used wounding — slicing off patches of skin in the mice — to find a genetic runway of sorts that usually stays dormant after embryonic development.
"Our next big finding was that injury provoked early development pathways for skin to make new hair follicles during wound healing," says Cotsarelis. "Adult mice were found to be developing hair follicles."
Humans can grow new hair, too — at very low levels. "It goes on but is inhibited. The evolution of man has been that all skin wounds heal as quickly as possible."
But in Cotsarelis' research, they looked for signals that allow skin to not just to repair but to make new follicles.
"We want both," says Cotsarelis of the elements of "regeneration" and "repairing."
But you can't just slice open your head and grow hair.
"Wounding alone doesn't do it — you need to push it into a growth state," notes Cotsarelis.
What previous researchers didn't find (Penn scientist Albert M. Kligman studied in this field in the 1950s), and what Cotsarelis pursued in the 2000s, was Wnt — a gene trigger, an important protein in hair development in utero that coaxes stem cells into growing hair. Block Wnts during development and you don't grow follicles. Increase it, and hair grows wild.
"If you get extra Wnts during that development you get extra follicles — wounding pushes skin into an embryonic state," explains Cotsarelis. "'Should I make a hair follicle or should I make myself into an epidermis?' is what cells say during wound healing. Our goal is to bring skin to that embryonic state. If they get Wnt, they'll make hair follicles."
Cotsarelis holds intellectual property around this through Penn. A company named Follica Inc. (Cotsarelis is on its scientific advisory board) has as its goal to develop a treatment for hair loss based on these and other growth factors.
Testing on humans has been limited. Researchers have taken human skin removed during other plastic surgery procedures and grafted the flesh onto immuno-deficient mice. After the old skin develops on these mice and it heals, they wound the skin and check for hair.
Without pinning himself to a timeline, the good doctor's estimate for Follica's treatment looks very possible for launch within the next five years. "It's impossible to know for sure, but within the next several years — two to three — there'll be a trial where we'll use a procedure with the compound to see if it works in humans," says Cotsarelis. "There will be the usual regulatory stuff after that, so perhaps in four to five years we'll have something we can offer people."
Some men would like to speed this process, but patience is key. Though I can't help wonder — would Cotaserlis make the research go quicker if he was losing his own hair?
"You know, it's funny. I was on the Today Show in 2004 after one of our papers came out, waiting to be interviewed from Philadelphia when I heard the producer ask his director if I was bald," laughs Cotsarelis. "Luckily, that's not where the motivation comes from. I have a full head of hair. But I understand how important it is to people."
