Fukuda Lab TrichoSeeds Co. Hair Cloning Clinical Trial Update

TrichoSeeds Co., a biotech founded by Junji Fukuda PhD, has announced a timeline for the start of its hair cloning clinical trial.

 

ko-karei.com

 

Note, the snippet above taken from the ko-karie.com website has been edited since the publishing of this article. Luckily, we caught a screenshot of it before the change was made. The original snippet contained the latest relevant information about TrichoSeeds Co. and its plans to begin clinical trials. This revelation comes from the website of the 5th Healthcare Venture Award event, which takes place in Tokyo, Japan at the Nihonbashi Life Science Hub on October 27, 2023, and will be broadcasted online. The event is co-sponsored by the Japan Anti-Aging Association, and TrichoSeeds Co. will be one of five finalists competing for the event’s top prize. Other finalist companies involved in the competition include a startup aimed at creating drugs for autophagy which help with cellular regeneration, and a company developing epigenomic age measurement technology for Japanese people.


New information announced by TrichoSeeds Co. in September 2023:

  • There are three confirmed candidate therapies for hair regeneration in TrichoSeeds’ pipeline. (Exciting news) These therapies are iterations of hair cloning using human cells. Described only as lines of research in a previous interview, one method involves injecting a single type of cells which signal for hair regeneration, the second method involves transplanting cell tissue which contains a mixture of cell types for to create hair follicle formation, and the third method is to create individual hair follicles “seedlings” grown in the lab for transplantation.

  • Rohto pharmaceutical company and TrichoSeeds Co. will receive approval to begin clinical trials by the end of 2024. 

Hair Cloning Trials Could Begin In 2024

This is all very favorable news, and in some ways, it can seem incredible. I’m happy to share this news, and also, I’d like to remind everyone that these statements by TrichoSeeds Co. are only a forecast. We absolutely would love to see a hair cloning trial begin next year, and we also know that that estimates are not guarantees. With that said, enjoy the news. We are fortunate to have so many different groups working on alleviating the condition of common hair loss. It would seem likely that the first trial with Rohto Pharmaceutical is a trial involving the most simple version for hair regeneration, the multiplied single cells. But, we will know more as time goes on. Hopefully, TrichoSeeds Co. will launch a website soon which will shed more light on its research and candidate therapies.


Please feel free to share this news with your hair-enthusiast friends. Citations are much appreciated when sharing. Let’s hear from the readers in the comments section below. 

62 Comments

  1. Follicle Thought on September 21, 2023 at 11:27 pm

    Special thanks to “Johnson” for the news tip. And Herbert from HairDAO for linking to the Top-Researchers interview article where the featured image was sourced from. It appears the 3 pipeline candidates were described previously as research lines and the article has been updated.

    Please also see my previous article with an older interview with Junji Fukuda PhD: https://folliclethought.com/fukuda-lab-yokohama-university-cloning-update/

    Before this news was released, I also heard from Junji this month and he briefly shared that his startup had partnered with a pharmaceutical company to begin clinical trials.

    • Sara on December 17, 2024 at 2:46 pm

      We’re almost on 2025 now. How is this going? Looking forward for results

  2. YoYo on September 22, 2023 at 1:26 am

    Sorry FT but could you briefly describe the process of this hair regeneration I still don’t seem to understand how this all works? Thanks

    • Follicle Thought on September 22, 2023 at 10:11 am

      YoYo, it would appear that the first iteration from TrichoSeeds will be an injection of a cloned/multiplied type of stem cell to create hair regeneration. There are other planned techniques which involve culturing a mixture of hair follicle cells before implantation, and the final method is to create hair follicle “seedlings” for transplantation.

      Here is a quote from Junji about this:
      “Actually, the third method of growing hair outside the body was something I had never imagined at first. A student happened to discover this while creating the second “hair seed” (as we call it), the “hair follicle primordium.” Normally, after three days of culturing, the cells would turn into seeds, so we immediately transplanted the “seeds” onto the backs of animals to test whether they could produce hair. When the student left the seed for three days without transplanting it, when he looked at it under a microscope, he noticed that something had grown from the seed. When a pathologist immediately examined it, it was discovered that it had a structure similar to that of hair, and this third method of creating “hair seedlings” was born. However, at first it was a very inefficient method, with only one growing for every 300 produced. In our 2022 announcement, we reported that we had increased this efficiency to nearly 100%.”

      • YoYo on September 22, 2023 at 1:26 pm

        Thank you so much FT!

  3. Nobody on September 22, 2023 at 4:25 am

    Thanks for the good news admin 🙂 Stay optimistic for the future

    • Follicle Thought on September 22, 2023 at 9:44 am

      Thanks Nobody! By the way, I saw you commented multiple times, comments need to go through moderation before they are approved. That is the reason you didn’t see it immediately.

  4. Ben on September 22, 2023 at 8:28 am

    No news here actually.

    The 3 candidates have been announced and explained by Fukuda a couple of months ago.

    You are writing „by the end of 2024“, but that’s nowhere in the link or snippet. It says „by next year“. I don’t know why you are skewing that, seems odd to me.

    Also the „pharmaceutical company“ is Rotho Pharma.

    • Follicle Thought on September 22, 2023 at 9:40 am

      Ben, the news is that an updated timeline of “by next year” aka by the end of 2024 for trial initiation has been announced. This was not previously announced, its always “in the next few years, etc.”

      I’m confused at what you mean by skewing? As of today, we are in the year 2023, next year is 2024. If a company says they are going to be approved to enter a trial “By next year” that means by the end of the following year. He certainly does not mean by the end of 2023/start of 2024. To be frank, I can’t understand why my assessment seems odd to you.

      Anyone else please feel free to chime in. Does anyone else have the assumption that trials would begin by the start of 2024? No way in my opinion.

      • Follicle Thought on September 23, 2023 at 12:48 pm

        No prob, Ben. If you don’t enjoy the content here you can seek elsewhere 🙂

        It’s obvious that if a company says “they will get permission to start trials at X time” then they absolutely are intending to begin the trials then. I’m not pessimistic, just realistic, and I also know what I’m talking about. You sound like you just want to complain, and that’s ok, you can, just not here.

        If they had meant “by the end of this year”, that is what they would have said, when they invoke “next year” it’s because they are intending for it to happen next year. I don’t believe your comment was a correction. But, you are right that it is my blog, Ben, and I allow people who appreciate the content to interact here. If you want to be a respectful participant, you can interact here as well. Until then, peace 🙂

  5. Hasan on September 22, 2023 at 1:43 pm

    When will it really be coming out…im.so ready to get it done….

  6. YoYo on September 22, 2023 at 4:27 pm

    Hey FT compared to your thoughts in 2020 how do you view the landscape of hair loss let’s say in the next 3-5 years.

    • Follicle Thought on September 23, 2023 at 11:30 pm

      First off, it’s hard for me to remember the year 2020 exactly, but I remember there was some hype around Tsuji at the time which has since evaporated and now recently resurged a bit. With all the names of TrichoSeeds, Epibiotech, Stemson, OrganTech (making a comeback), and a longer list of drugs in the pipeline, things look like at least a small improvement over 202, YoYo. Still some work to be done. Results from Technoderma Medicines will be important, as well as GT20029 phase 2.

      • YoYo on September 24, 2023 at 12:30 am

        I agree with you as well, I feel like 2026/2027 will be pivotal as there is a possibility that Epibiotech or AMP-303 may come to fruition which would be a game changer for us all.

      • YoYo on September 24, 2023 at 12:31 am

        And you did forget to mention dNOVO however they have been quiet since 2021 which isn’t exactly reassuring (so far) lol

  7. YoYo on September 22, 2023 at 6:15 pm
    • Follicle Thought on September 23, 2023 at 11:34 pm

      Yes, thanks, I have heard of that. It’s actually a bit of an older study YoYo. I had an article about the startup attached to it, but it looks like Ke Cheng has abandoned that project and is focusing on cancer drugs lately. https://folliclethought.com/exosomes-therapies-for-hair-loss/

  8. Ingrid on September 23, 2023 at 4:59 am

    Dear Admin, thank you so much for the hopeful news!
    Do you have news from Angela Christiano or Colin Jahoda?
    Hairfollicles cells are immunoprevilegated so an allogenic transplantation should work.
    I know from a doctor who had transplanted some hair from mother to sun and it worked without taking immunsupplesiva.

    • Follicle Thought on September 23, 2023 at 11:37 pm

      Thanks Ingrid. No news from Christiano or Jahoda at the moment.

  9. Ingrid on September 23, 2023 at 12:41 pm

    Thank you admin for the great news!
    Are there news from hairtranplant to another person?
    Hair follicels are immunoprevigelated and it should work.
    I know a doctor who transplanted some follicles from mother to sun and it worked.

    • Follicle Thought on September 23, 2023 at 11:40 pm

      Thanks, I don’t believe that immunopriveliged hair transplants will become common. I think more companies would rather focus on creating cloned cells or follicles. The Korean researcher is probably the best candidate to try to market that procedure.

  10. Dirk on September 24, 2023 at 7:52 am

    Hi FT,

    What do you think of recently published research that indicates that malloclusion type 2 might be the cause of hairloss?

    https://reddit.com/r/HairlossResearch/s/HicR5GAui2

    • Follicle Thought on September 24, 2023 at 8:31 pm

      Dirk, at first glance I don’t see much there. Perhaps there are some correlations that do exist, and some usefulness to study the theory more in depth, but I’m just respectfully not sold on the totality of the concept for now. Maybe it represents a piece of the puzzle? Respect to the doctor for presenting something.

  11. Follicle Thought on September 25, 2023 at 2:08 pm

    Sorry about the double email notification! Only one post was created, the Update triggered an unintended email notification.

  12. Fuwala on September 25, 2023 at 6:07 pm

    This looks fantastic. I think this is what everybody is waiting for.

    Any information, first estimation, or even opinion about the future cost of such procedures? Can we expect something “reasonable” as in around the upper scale of current hair transplant procedures? Or is it simply too early to make any projection?

    • Follicle Thought on September 29, 2023 at 10:07 am

      Fuwala, we’ll need to know a bit more about what the procedure entails to make a better estimate. I think an estimate around a moderate-larger hair transplant procedure is a fair estimate. Like you say, it may be a bit early to make a prediction.

  13. Merle Ber on September 28, 2023 at 9:53 pm

    I heard of Alma Ted Laser for hair growth. Do u know anything about this company?

    • Follicle Thought on September 29, 2023 at 10:07 am

      I’ve heard of Alma before, haven’t heard of many prevalent hair transplant doctors adopting the technology yet.

      • Follicle Thought on September 29, 2023 at 8:51 pm

        Pelage Pharmaceuticals news coming soon, according to the grapevine.

        • YoYo on September 30, 2023 at 2:09 pm

          I’m gonna guess the initiation of clinical trials next, it’s the only news left from them 😉

  14. Follicle Thought on October 1, 2023 at 8:18 pm

    The recent Dr. Bloxham Verteporfin study post has been updated with a Q&A with Dr. Bloxham.

  15. YoYo on October 3, 2023 at 6:40 pm

    https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7115001747886014464/ Stemson is going to present their progress in this conference

    • Follicle Thought on October 3, 2023 at 7:43 pm

      Thanks for sharing YoYo. I’ll see if the presentation is available online.

  16. YoYo on October 10, 2023 at 1:35 pm

    Hey FT have you got any updates on dNOVO? It’s a little strange that they’ve stopped giving updates on the company for over 2 years now, hopefully they’re still in R&D

    • Follicle Thought on October 10, 2023 at 4:43 pm

      YoYo, I have not received any updates from the company directly, which is not promising. I contacted them to get feedback on a rumor about their current active status. They did not follow up with me, which doesn’t bode well for the rumor, I suppose.

      • YoYo on October 10, 2023 at 11:25 pm

        Understandable not every company are going to be successful on their attempts. Thanks anyway FT!

    • Yogui on October 11, 2023 at 9:46 am

      dNovo is inactive in Ycombinator https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/dnovo

      • Follicle Thought on October 12, 2023 at 10:34 am

        Great find Yogui, very appreciated. It appears the rumors are true about dNovo.

  17. GnarlyWidowsPeak on October 12, 2023 at 9:29 am

    Hey FT,

    What are your thoughts on Folix 22?

    Thank you for all the work you put in.

    • Follicle Thought on October 12, 2023 at 10:17 am

      Hi there, I could not see any ingredients listed on the website briefly, and I saw some really jaw-dropping results images on the website. In fact, I’d have to say some of the photos are a bit unbelievable – literally. Doesn’t quite add up at first glance.

      • GnarlyWidowsPeak on October 12, 2023 at 1:55 pm

        Thank you for your insight

  18. Yogui on October 14, 2023 at 4:10 am

    These two articles are interesting. We are living in a surprising time with a lot of science behind it.

    https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg0297

    https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adf7547

  19. YoYo on October 18, 2023 at 5:54 pm

    Hey FT, is there any update coming from Pelage? Thanks!

    • Follicle Thought on October 18, 2023 at 6:09 pm

      YoYo, yes there will be a press release from Pelage. However, it’s up in the air when. I would be very surprised if it did not come by the end of October.

      • YoYo on October 18, 2023 at 8:52 pm

        Perfect thanks again FT!

  20. Follicle Thought on October 18, 2023 at 6:34 pm

    It looks like Triple Hair has received the investment it needed to move into their phase 3 clinical trial.

    More at https://folliclethought.com/updates/

  21. NoName on October 20, 2023 at 8:33 am
    • Ingrid on October 23, 2023 at 3:11 pm

      I had contact to Dr Hoffmann from Repicel.
      They search men to test topical medcine against andronetic alopezia in Germany.

      • Follicle Thought on October 23, 2023 at 5:49 pm

        Sounds interesting Ingrid.

  22. Follicle Thought on October 23, 2023 at 6:00 pm

    By the way, I know the news scene has been a bit quiet lately, but there are some new article stories coming soon. I’ve been doing my best behind the scenes.

    • LJ on October 24, 2023 at 12:48 pm

      It’s honestly like receiving mail in prison FT, keep ’em coming…

      • Follicle Thought on October 24, 2023 at 5:59 pm

        LJ, I’ve got a lot of new leads in the works. Doing my best to get something out to you guys soon!

        • LJ on October 25, 2023 at 1:33 am

          Thanks, appreciate your work.

  23. YoYo on October 24, 2023 at 1:05 am

    We you be watching the online Fukuda presentation on the 27th FT?

    • Follicle Thought on October 24, 2023 at 6:00 pm

      Yes, I will be YoYo. I would like to find a Japanese reader to help translate.

      • Ingrid on October 24, 2023 at 10:58 pm

        Is the online Fukuda presentation for everybody to see? Do you have the exakt time? You make good works FT!

        • Follicle Thought on October 25, 2023 at 6:12 pm

          Ingrid, yes the link to the event is in the article above. Exact time should be October 27, 2023 (Friday) 15:00-17:00. You may register through the link mentioned, many have done so.

          • Ingrid on October 26, 2023 at 8:19 am

            Is this the time in Japan?

            • Follicle Thought on October 26, 2023 at 10:41 am

              I believe it will be around 8am CET, Ingrid. You may register for the event and it shows the times.



            • Ingrid on October 29, 2023 at 9:38 am

              It was not possible for me to see the event.
              What are the news ?



            • Follicle Thought on October 29, 2023 at 9:14 pm

              I did not see the event. If anyone did, please share.



  24. Osman on August 31, 2024 at 12:10 am

    Did they start clinical trials on Humans? Is there any news from Fukuda Lab?

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