Stemson is going to use minipigs in the next stage of their hair cloning research

Raccooner

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My thought about dNovo bio that is troubling is their size. Only 3 people! Yikes! Compare that to Stemson Therapeutics having around 2 dozen people with specialized areas of knowledge and a lot more money. What's the likelihood of dNovo bio making a leap in progress having so few individuals working there? They need to expand their size. The good thing is they got money granted to them too, around 2.2 million or so but their minimal funding will hold them back too. They need to attract more investment somehow to expand. The need for funding is crucial just to do pre-clinical and clinical trials. Then there's salaries, machinery needed, outside help, utilities, etc. Government wastes so much of our money on things that make us miserable (likely causing us to lose our hair) but to do something with our money that can benefit people's quality of life somehow that is not the case. If any group had unlimited money I'm wondering how much faster progress would come? For example, does Stemson Therapeutics have enough money right now to do everything they need or are certain things lacking due to lack of funds?
 

Raccooner

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Latest news on Stemson Therapeutics is they're hiring more scientists. New job posts came as of 2/24 and 2/26. Here are the job posts: Careers : Stemson Therapeutics (stemsontx.com). I'm not sure whether this is good or bad news though. One would logically think that if they were at where they need to be at this point, they would have no need to make new hires. The other possibility is people quitting or getting fired due to lack of good results and needing replacement. To keep hiring people beyond a certain point makes no sense as their budget is only so much, and people need to get paid. The other possibility is maybe they're wanting to keep a job post open so that an amazing fit will turn up one day and don't want their options limited by what they have at the current moment. The other thing I am not encouraged about is the lack of reporting so far on the pigs. Why? I keep asking them about it and no reply. If there were signs of good news, wouldn't they want to play it up rather than be silent? My honest guess is the pig models have been a failure to this point, thus the new hires being sought out now. Also, we have no real timeline to know exactly when the pig testing began and at what times they made any adjustments or changes. I wish I knew someone who could be a nice fit for these positions. It would be good if we could find a way to get their job posts to sources that bio-scientists go to so the right candidates can be found. Right now, it looks like there's 28 people in total at Stemson Therapeutics. Based on what I'm seeing, I think they've hit a bump and until that is worked out a human trial is not going to be happening. If anyone here has a clue based on the recent job posts, I'd like to read what you think is going on there.
 
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werefckd

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woah

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Raccooner

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First-in-human clinical trial but there's been no mention about how the pigs are doing. Why is that? Until we get word regarding the pig dilemma, human clinical trials will happen when pigs fly. If they actually succeeded or had promising results with the pigs, wouldn't we have heard it by now? I read over and over that growing hair on mice is easy, pigs and humans are not.

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werefckd

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First-in-human clinical trial but there's been no mention about how the pigs are doing. Why is that? Until we get word regarding the pig dilemma, human clinical trials will happen when pigs fly. If they actually succeeded or had promising results with the pigs, wouldn't we have heard it by now? I read over and over that growing hair on mice is easy, pigs and humans are not.

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Yea it’s a very BAD sign that they are preparing for clinical trials lol
 
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werefckd

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Finally clinical trials are on the horizon, that is the first time they mentioned the expression clinical trial in a job description. The fact that they added two big names in their medical advisory board with experience in that area a month ago was no coincidence!

[first in human clinical trial is a] type of clinical trial in which a new drug, procedure, or treatment is tested in humans for the first time. First-in-human studies take place after the new treatment has been tested in laboratory and animal studies and are usually done as phase I clinical trials. Also called FIH study.
 
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Raccooner

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Finally clinical trials are on the horizon, that is the first time they mentioned the expression clinical trial in a job description. The fact that they added two big names in their medical advisory board with experience in that area a month ago was no coincidence!

[first in human clinical trial is a] type of clinical trial in which a new drug, procedure, or treatment is tested in humans for the first time. First-in-human studies take place after the new treatment has been tested in laboratory and animal studies and are usually done as phase I clinical trials. Also called FIH study.
Alright then, you pointed to some good signs I overlooked. The thing is we don't know when these human trials are ready to start. We will know that they are going to begin after they show and report on the results of the mini pigs and get the funding needed. Indeed, they will hire some who will carry out human trials but that's for a time off in the future. They want to prepare early not to delay which will help. In the current time, they're going to be managing mice and pigs. There's no report about how the mini pigs is faring or their results. We have no idea when they will conclude either, especially if the results don't work out as hoped for. Until we find out the mini pigs have produced cosmetically superior results, how the hair has cycled, and their health is okay, the human trials are not going to commence. Once Stemson will give us the answers we need, the path forward is clearer.

Another thing, does anyone know the reason Cenk Sumen quit?
 

Joxy

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Hamilton said on previous conference that they are planning to hire more people in next couple of months.

And they are actively testing the technology on pigs, and going through cycles until they get the confidence with the results, so they can move on to the next stage. Every experiment need couple of weeks.
 

Raccooner

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Hamilton said on previous conference that they are planning to hire more people in next couple of months.

And they are actively testing the technology on pigs, and going through cycles until they get the confidence with the results, so they can move on to the next stage. Every experiment need couple of weeks.
But what I don't like about this is the lack of reporting on current findings from their experiments. It would be good to tell/show the public (hair loss community) the results of their findings and what they did, even if not good results occurred. If they're afraid of ideas being stolen, they could mention they will be trying something else starting at a specific date and leave it from there. The fact that they're hiring scientists now for clinical trials is good for when the time comes (assuming it does) but doesn't prove any substantial progress was made from the pigs or what measure of success they've had (if any).

I sent an email to Amy Caterina at Stemson, asking if someone from the company could address our questions in this forum. I mentioned it was a huge and active post. It would be great if someone there could address our concerns but am not holding my breath. When I ask for specifics in my emails, I never get a reply. Geoff Hamilton spoke on The Bald Truth show, so at least we know important events will get his attention. Is this forum important enough to get him to participate? I sent the email over the weekend. We will see.
 

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Okay, here's a hint that I'm not being paranoid in my thinking about the mini pigs going nowhere. There's a possibility that testing at Stemson Therapeutics may never have even begun regarding the mini pigs. Spenser Kobren might have just let the cat out of the bag (that Stemson has not yet started testing on the mini pigs)! Go to the 30:13 mark at the video: The Bald Truth - Hair Loss Podcast - February 25th, 2022 - YouTube. Unless Spenser is putting his words in the wrong tense, it sounds to me like what he said was, "What's interesting now is that next phase of testing from Stemson Therapeutics will be on pigs, so they are not being genetically modified, but they are testing the process out." So, the "will be" sounds like something that's going to be happening in the future. What I want to know is it's been over a year since the mention of mini pigs was raised by Stemson. What have they been doing in all this time? So, if the mini pigs haven't taken off then starting human trials is even further away than we think. I would trust a company where all the members have hair loss and want a cure as desperately as we do. Then I know things will get off the ground. We need people to solve this problem like their lives depend on it.
 
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Raccooner

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Hamilton said on previous conference that they are planning to hire more people in next couple of months.

And they are actively testing the technology on pigs, and going through cycles until they get the confidence with the results, so they can move on to the next stage. Every experiment need couple of weeks.
Please list your source where you found that Stemson Therapeutics is "actively testing the technology on pigs and going through cycles..." I want to know this is for real. A source that comes directly from Stemson would be preferred.
 

trialAcc

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Please list your source where you found that Stemson Therapeutics is "actively testing the technology on pigs and going through cycles..." I want to know this is for real. A source that comes directly from Stemson would be preferred.
The CEO says it in like every recent interview & presentation. Watch one.
 

trialAcc

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Latest news on Stemson Therapeutics is they're hiring more scientists. New job posts came as of 2/24 and 2/26. Here are the job posts: Careers : Stemson Therapeutics (stemsontx.com). I'm not sure whether this is good or bad news though. One would logically think that if they were at where they need to be at this point, they would have no need to make new hires. The other possibility is people quitting or getting fired due to lack of good results and needing replacement. To keep hiring people beyond a certain point makes no sense as their budget is only so much, and people need to get paid. The other possibility is maybe they're wanting to keep a job post open so that an amazing fit will turn up one day and don't want their options limited by what they have at the current moment. The other thing I am not encouraged about is the lack of reporting so far on the pigs. Why? I keep asking them about it and no reply. If there were signs of good news, wouldn't they want to play it up rather than be silent? My honest guess is the pig models have been a failure to this point, thus the new hires being sought out now. Also, we have no real timeline to know exactly when the pig testing began and at what times they made any adjustments or changes. I wish I knew someone who could be a nice fit for these positions. It would be good if we could find a way to get their job posts to sources that bio-scientists go to so the right candidates can be found. Right now, it looks like there's 28 people in total at Stemson Therapeutics. Based on what I'm seeing, I think they've hit a bump and until that is worked out a human trial is not going to be happening. If anyone here has a clue based on the recent job posts, I'd like to read what you think is going on there.
Hiring scientists is like universally never a bad thing.
 

Raccooner

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The CEO says it in like every recent interview & presentation. Watch one.
I did. In this interview Geoff Hamilton did mention they were testing on larger mammals: Stemson Therapeutics Interview Part 2 - Induced Pluripotent Stemcells? - YouTube. This is reassuring. My worry is they aren't getting ideal results from the mini pigs, thus the silence on the results so far. But again, the fact they are hiring scientists now for human trials is a sign perhaps things are headed in the right direction, we can only hope.
 

froggy7

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I did. In this interview Geoff Hamilton did mention they were testing on larger mammals: Stemson Therapeutics Interview Part 2 - Induced Pluripotent Stemcells? - YouTube. This is reassuring. My worry is they aren't getting ideal results from the mini pigs, thus the silence on the results so far. But again, the fact they are hiring scientists now for human trials is a sign perhaps things are headed in the right direction, we can only hope.
After all, it was certain that not everything would go according to plan, pigs are not mice, only here on the forum some guys think that cloning a hair is a little beer
 

Raccooner

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Finally clinical trials are on the horizon, that is the first time they mentioned the expression clinical trial in a job description. The fact that they added two big names in their medical advisory board with experience in that area a month ago was no coincidence!

[first in human clinical trial is a] type of clinical trial in which a new drug, procedure, or treatment is tested in humans for the first time. First-in-human studies take place after the new treatment has been tested in laboratory and animal studies and are usually done as phase I clinical trials. Also called FIH study.
Thank you for your input. You are connecting the dots, whereas I am panicking. That's not to say I am completely wrong though. When word has it the hair is growing nicely from the pigs then I think it's somewhat safe to say a cure will be available. I panic because of the failure rate in the past but they are taking an approach to this that no one has before. What worries me is them not being able to control always what type of cells they become. The good news is I did a little reading today into iPSC and it was successful in a human clinical trial going back to 2013 or at least the body didn't reject it. I think it had something to do with eye disease. I need confidence this technology can work but the investors obviously think so otherwise they wouldn't dump money into people employing it. I also read somewhere on the Internet today that thousands of people already wish to participate in Stemson's clinical trials. Imagine how many people out there must be following this company! No wonder my emails go largely unanswered from them. However, if they are hiring scientists for their clinical trial, they must be pretty sure the pig model they have is going to work. If only we had the inside knowledge. See, the thing I don't like is even Geoff Hamilton isn't fully convinced this will pan out, which in a sense though I really admire because he knows the emotions that are involved in this sort of thing. If he said, "yes, we will have a cure" and they don't, well that would just be wrong.
 
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Raccooner

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Hamilton said on previous conference that they are planning to hire more people in next couple of months.

And they are actively testing the technology on pigs, and going through cycles until they get the confidence with the results, so they can move on to the next stage. Every experiment need couple of weeks.
The thing that worries me about this hiPSC technology is that the cells are hard to control. I hope they find a way to make them all into functioning hair cells and not something else in the experiments. This is one thing that CEO Geoff Hamilton states in a past interview that could prove to be trouble. The good thing is this technology has been used in the past and created a retina for the eye for example. So, it can be done correctly, but the consistency issue is a factor of concern. Here is a video from the man who discovered iPSC back in 2006: A New Era of Medicine with iPS Cells - Lecture by Professor Shinya Yamanaka - YouTube. This video also gives background into the subject: What's the Deal with Induced Pleuripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)? - YouTube. Obviously, we're not working in labs, but we can get an idea what this is, what has been accomplished and in the works.
 
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