Researchers are working on one age-related problem we often take for granted: Baldness

Science is finally looking to cure a long-disregarded health issue: Baldness.

It’s not that people aren’t concerned about losing their hair. The global hair loss prevention market is estimated at more than $23 billion, including shampoos, conditioners, oils, serums and other products. On top of that, the world spends more than $7 billion to treat alopecia.  

But no one has found a truly effective cure for hair loss.

This is a real problem. More than 50% of women and 85% of men in the United States will experience some form of balding during their lives. Often attributed to stress and anxiety, hair loss is frequently linked to aging.

Some hair loss is the result of an autoimmune disease, alopecia. In severe cases, hair can fall out in patches.

But hair loss can be caused by many problems, including thyroid disorders, hormonal imbalances and nutritional deficiencies.

Sometimes, hair loss is caused by the fact that hair follicles stop working, just as other cells in the body become less effective. In many cases, that leads to what is commonly called hair thinning. More severe cases result in more pronounced hair loss.

Though hair is an important to our sense of self, science has not found a way to significantly address the problem.

But now, several teams are working on it. 

A Wired magazine article focused on the progress that four groups have achieved in their efforts to restore healthy hair growth.

One group led by Maksim Plikus, professor of developmental and cell biology at the University of California, Irvine, and chief scientific officer of hair biotech startup Amplifica, recently published a study in Developmental Cell that highlights the role of a signaling protein molecule called SCUBE3. It may change how physicians approach baldness.

Plikus and his team injected SCUBE3 into mice, including some with human hair follicles grafted into their skin. The SCUBE3 injections drove hair growth.

Though more research is needed, Plikus envisions a day when microinjections of SCUBE3 will restore hair follicle productivity.

Turn Biotechnologies is taking a different approach. It is working on a cocktail of proteins that can turn back the clock on hair follicles. The company’s therapy, TRN-001, would be delivered to follicles inside liquid nanoparticles and help reset stem cells there, making the follicles functionally younger.

Company co-founder Vittorio Sebastiano hopes to start clinical trials in humans by early 2024. While TRN-001 would be applied topically with microinjections, this mRNA-based approach might be more potent, since it forces cells to make relevant proteins themselves.

Kevin McElwee, associate professor of dermatology at the University of British Columbia in Canada and chief scientific officer of hair biotech company RepliCel, is betting on a different cell-based approach to baldness. His company plans to harvest hair follicles from a person, separate dermal sheath cup cells, culture and multiply them, then microinject them back into the person’s head.

A competitor, HairClone, is taking a similar approach, but focusing on dermal papilla cells.

All these approaches are interesting because they recognize that hair loss is a condition that can be cured.

This is what we imagined when we developed the seven strategies that guide Methuselah Foundation investments, planning and policies. We came up with seven strategies because there is no single solution that will lengthen the healthy human lifespan. It will take a combination of things to help us reach our goal of making 90 the new 50 by 2030.

Two of these companies, Amplifica and Turn Bio, offer examples of our “debug the code” strategy, which recognizes that humans are built from codes, including DNA and the “action code,” RNA. As we go through life, the codes can be damaged, compromising the ability of cells to do what they are supposed to do. The goal of this strategy is to return the code to a youthful state, restoring the cells’ ability to function optimally.

The other two companies, RepliCel and HairClone, are examples or our “new parts for people,” a strategy focused on technologies to create replacement parts of our bodies, including organs, cartilage, bones and vasculature. In their case, working hair follicles. We envision a day when making replacement biological parts will be as easy as replacing parts in a modern car. 

It is exciting to see these companies working to bring to life what we imagined to be possible. Millions of people are counting on their success.