Hair loss news first:
— On January 12, Samumed updated its clinical trial page. They are now measuring secondary outcomes from the scalp biopsy for an additional 45 days (from 91 days to 135 days).
— My post from last year on the ligature of scalp area arteries to prevent further hair loss was not too popular when it comes to number of reader comments, even though I thought it was a fascinating subject. Yesterday, someone named Peter Renardo posted an extraordinary account of his positive experiences after having this procedure done on himself 30 years ago! A must read as far as user comments go. Having said that, please do not ever get this procedure done.
— New topical product coming out of Germany this summer. Best to always remain skeptical about such announcements.
— Perhaps not immediately relevant to hair loss research, but scientists have developed an algorithm that can predict the factors required to convert one human cell type to another. This could have major implications for regenerative medicine. More importantly, the creator of the computational algorithm, Dr. Owen Rackham, has made a publicly available site called mogrify.net on which you can find the cellular factors required for cell conversions. I tried doing the dermal papilla cell to hair follicle cell conversion, but got two different results. A user named “InBeforeTheCure” on hairlosstalk also tried the same thing and saw results that were different to my two results! More on this development here.
— Interesting new ARTAS robotic hair transplant video.
— Breast cancer patients often complain about hair loss being the most difficult part of chemotherapy. A good recent article on this issue…which makes me reverse my decision on not writing about the Swedish made DigniCap cooling cap that was FDA cleared early last month.
— An interesting update to a hair loss forum thread by a male-to-female transsexual.
And now on to medical items of interest:
— Who will finally get the Nobel prize for discovering CRISPR (a guaranteed event in most scientists’ minds)? Will they change the regulations and for the first time ever award more than three scientists?
— A somewhat sinister and at the same time fascinating video below on China and genetic engineering (the country was in the news a lot in 2015 due to it being the first to use CRIPSR on human embryos; creating genetically modified micropigs; using gene editing to create extra muscular dogs; and planning to soon open the world’s largest animal cloning factory):
— Maybe even more spine chilling….the definitely creepy Dr. Canavaro might well be correct that a human head transplant (more accurately full body transplant) is possible within the next several years. Apparently a monkey head transplant was recently successful (albeit they only kept the animal alive for 20 hrs due to ethical reasons). This is real animal cruelty:-(
— Printable organs are closer than ever. Perhaps a hyped up title. However, this recent BBC article suggests that 3D printed cartilage will be available within 3 years.
— An interesting video summary of CRISPR:
— Would you pay $100,000 to clone your pet? My answer is “no way” even if I was a billionaire.
— Jason Silva on Transhumanism: