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Manchester Biotech Start-Up Launches World's First 'Hair Follicle Banking Service'

HairClone, a pioneering start-up, has been granted a licence by UK regulators to launch the world’s first follicle banking service.

Biotechnology firm HairClone, headquartered in Manchester, says it wants to ‘make hair loss a thing of the past’.

And as a major first step towards this goal, HairClone has now been authorised by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) to launch the world’s first ever hair follicle banking system.

Male and female patients who are concerned about hair loss can now have some of their hair follicles cryopreserved.

And it is hoped that in the future, subject to further approvals, these follicles could be used to combat balding.

Respected hair restoration surgeon Dr Bessam Farjo, founder of the Farjo Hair Institute and Medical Director of HairClone, said, ‘Now that the licence is in place we’re ready to bank hair for patients. Consultations can begin in earnest. We are contacted every day by people concerned about hair loss, and who are asking when the banking system will be ready.’

Hair follicle banking will be open to all adults, aged 18 and over, and the banking costs will be similar to other established tissue banking procedures which currently costs around £2,000.

In the HairClone banking process, the patient and surgeon will first decide whether banking is a good option.

Then around a hundred hair follicles will be removed from the back of patient’s head in a simple surgical procedure which will take less than an hour.

The follicles will then be carefully cryopreserved to maintain cell viability, before being stored at minus 180 C at HairClone’s partner tissue bank.

The science underpinning the treatment concept relates to the ‘cloning’ and multiplying of Dermal Papilla, or ‘DP’, cells found in hair follicles and which communicate with other nearby ‘epithelial’ cells, controlling the formation of the hair shaft.

In this treatment, some of the banked follicles will be carefully thawed and the relevant cells multiplied (cloned) and transported back to the surgery where they will be implanted back into the scalp through a series of small injections.

Early work has indicated that these cells are able to replace those lost in the miniaturised hairs, rebuilding the hairs to their original thickness and length.

Dr Paul Kemp, HairClone CEO, explains ‘Hair is a naturally regenerating mini-organ. It goes through periods of growth, then resting, shedding and regeneration. This process is controlled by a specific group of very specialised cells at the base of the hair follicle called Dermal Papilla cells and they determine the thickness and length of the hair shaft that is produced. Hair loss is the result of a decrease in the number of these critical dermal papilla cells from affected follicles. This results in the hair shafts becoming thinner and shorter which eventually gives the appearance that the hairs are lost. HairClone aims to replace the dermal papilla cells and rebuild these miniaturising follicles back to their original thickness and length. By multiplying these cells from a patient’s own banked follicles our hope is that we will be able to rebuild thousands of miniaturising hairs from a few banked follicles. Our goal is to maintain a patient’s hair density while also preventing these treated hairs from miniaturisation in the future.’

In the longer term, HairClone has another important target - to one day use cells from banked follicles to create thousands of brand new hair follicles from scratch, via a process called ‘follicle neogenesis’.

Addressing the hair follicle banking licence, Dr Kemp adds, ‘We are extremely excited to reach this major milestone in the company’s journey. Although we have approval to start follicle banking, it is important to stress that this does not mean we are authorised yet to begin treatments. Gaining that authorisation will be our next goal and follicle banking will also provide important revenues to accelerate this development and because these patients’ follicles are already banked they can be the first to have access to the treatments when we have the necessary authorisations.’

HairClone expects to increase the number of clinical partners in the coming months but there are already over 100 million people within 50 miles of a partner clinic in the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Marco/Richards PR .