AI Discovers New Hair Loss Drug: LCH34
Life Code shares poster from the 25th World Congress of Dermatology Singapore 2023 with Follicle Thought.
Artificial Intelligence Small Molecule Enhanced Hair Growth
Follicle Thought is pleased to share an exclusive look at Life Code’s poster from the current World Congress of Dermatology event. Just over a year ago, I shared an introduction to Life Code, a Hong Kong-based drug discovery company which uses artificial intelligence to discover new molecules for various health conditions. Since then, Life Code has been quietly working on research programs for androgenetic alopecia and testing molecule candidates. The company used a proprietary AI drug discovery system, PetaPoly, to screen around 400,000 molecules, while looking for the best hair growth-inducing characteristics. From there, about 30 molecules with the best characteristics were further tested in vitro for efficacy, toxicity safety, and side effect potentials. One molecule was found to perform best across the board, LCH34, seen in the poster below. Note that this poster contains ex vivo human hair follicle (meaning follicles extracted from a human scalp) data from experiments carried out with the acclaimed contract research organization, the Monasterium Laboratory.
Click To View Full Poster
Life Code Seeking Partnership
Life Code has informed Follicle Thought that LCH34 is being developed as a pharmaceutical candidate treatment for androgenetic alopecia. To that end, they are seeking strategic partners in the pharmaceutical industry. Licensing inquiries can be made using the Contact link Life Code’s website. This poster displaying LCH34’s data is a great example of the work which happens behind the scenes after a company is first introduced to the hair-seeking internet crowd. Previously, Life Code was featured on Follicle Thought as a new company with research lines in AGA, and now a drug candidate is officially presented. There is still much work to be done, and hopefully human trials for LCH34 can be initiated in the near term.
Special thanks to Life Code for sharing this poster with the readers of Follicle Thought. There is a lot of work and follow through which goes into obtaining exclusive information and data like this poster, which would only otherwise be available to those attending the World Congress of Dermatology in Singapore.
You rock, Folliclethought! Keep it up. 🙂
How do the mechanisms of actions here compare to Minox? I see it is not a 5-alpha reducase inhibitor like Fin, but I am not really familiar with the Wnt pathway.
Minox has never been an options for me because it causes me extreme insomnia.
It would be different from minox JC, as I don’t believe it would be a vasodilator.
Thanks FT, in sure many like me look forward to your posts to keep morale up with what is otherwise quite a demoralising disease
Thanks for the kind words LJ, we’re all doing the best we can.
Cant this AI run a model/test on Amplifica’s potential molecules candidates and see their success rate. 400,000 molecules ! I mean maybe
osteopontin or scuba3 were in there and AI disregarded them. Or maybe that’s not how things work and am being too naive. Both ways I hope we can just run all hair research by AI tools and they make sense of the data and spot something researchers are missing… and that will be the cure.
I don’t know all of the capabilities of a drug screening platform like PetaPoly, and I don’t know exactly how they function as I’ve never used one. It’s likely that PetaPoly did not screen for molecules like osteonpontin or SCUBE3 in this research. There are billions of compounds out there. Ultimately, it will still come down to how LCH34 or other AI molecules perform in human trials, the AI just helps give good suggestions in much shorter time than older methods of man-powered drug discovery.
Jesus. I really lost count. Only in 2015 we coped with a handful of companies. Now i lost count with all These new companies and even with the trials currently talking place.. what a positive development, hope this continues.
Good stuff as usual FT, and happy to be able to see some comments again. Truly believe we will see a cure within the next ten-fifteen years at the rate things are going.
Hey Admin,
I hope you’re well. I appreciate all your contributions in educating us on this incredibly debilitating condition. I just wanted to ask how confident you are that a cure/treatment that can restore a full head of hair is on the horizon and not many years or decades away. I’d like to be optimistic, but I do want to remain realistic as well. Thanks!
Hi Sam, I’ve never said I was confident a treatment which could restore a full head of hair is on the horizon and not many years away. I would, in fact, predict that a treatment which can restore a bald head to a full head of hair is likely many years away. Just an example, I’ve pegged Stemson Therapeutics on an estimated release, subject to safety and clinical trials, at around 2030-2033 in the Ultimate Guide to Hair Regeneration article. Every month that goes by without an update from the company, this estimate is subject to shift.
Since the future is uncertain, I would recommend you put your perspective in a place which acknowledges that nothing is guaranteed. I acknowledge that these treatments are not guaranteed to work, yet, I remain optimistic for improvements on a personal level. There are potentials that breakthroughs happen unexpectedly as well.
Well that just sucks. I’m 34. I guess I’ll never benefit from a “cure.” What’s the point of caring ?
If you’re 34, I don’t know exactly why you say you’ll never benefit from a cure. Also, if some treatments come out much sooner which are essentially 1/3 of a cure, wouldn’t that still be a big help? Buzzing or shaving one’s hair is always an option; I think a lot of people are up for any improvement offered from upcoming therapies.