Introducing HairDAO: Crowdsourcing A Cure For Hair Loss
A new type of open-source corporation has emerged with an intriguing goal in mind: to leverage the scientific community and hair loss experiencers worldwide to fund and create new treatments for hair loss.
New HairDAO Study With Dr. Ralf Paus
A recent press release from HairDAO announced their first funded project, which turned out to be a study collaboration with renowned hair researcher Dr. Ralf Paus of the Cutaneon company in Germany. HairDAO and Dr. Paus will evaluate the T3 and T4 (aka thyroxine) thyroid hormones as potential topical therapies for androgenetic alopecia. T3 and T4 thyroid hormones are common drugs prescribed worldwide for people experiencing hypothyroidism, a condition where the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. Hair loss is a common symptom of both hyper and hypo-thyroid disorders. Hence, the notion to investigate thyroid hormones as a therapeutic intervention for alopecia is not far fetched, and has actually been properly evaluated by Dr. Paus in a previous peer-reviewed studies, even dating back to a publication from 2008.This time, Dr. Paus will test T3 and T4 in a human scalp skin organ culture, a model which actually tests human tissue’s response to the drugs, instead of using an animal model.
So, hold on. HairDAO? Who are these guys and what’s their story? HairDAO was founded by two entrepreneurs from the NYC area with blockchain investment backgrounds; Andrew Bakst and Andrew Verbinnen. Their vision to utilize blockchain and crypto technologies has manifested into a budding community of hair loss patients, medical doctors, researchers, and other industry professionals who all contribute something towards to the goal of discovering, organizing, funding, and evaluating new hair growth treatments or new approaches towards treating and solving hair loss. The HairDAO working group community includes familiar names like Dr. Carlos Wesley, Dr. Ralf Paus, and even yours truly, Follicle Thought, to help network and source new therapies and targets for hair growth. Further in this article, I conducted an interview with the founders of HairDAO to shed more light on these new concepts. Directly below is a look at a few of the candidates in HairDAO’s project pipeline.
Interview With HairDAO Founders Andrew Bakst & Andrew Verbinnen
FT: In simple terms, what is a DAO, and how does HairDAO function?
HD: A DAO is an open-source corporation that operates on a blockchain, which allows for frictionless coordination and collaboration amongst our global members. HairDAO incentivizes productive behavior via the $hair token, the native instrument used to govern all assets held in HairDAO’s treasury.
FT: When and why did you decide to create HairDAO?
HD: We decided to create HairDAO in November 2021, while working in public blockchain technology as investors. We’ve both suffered from hair loss for quite some time now, and so we have been highly aware of the subpar current solution set. Hair loss is a global problem, which really makes a DAO the perfect structure to solve it. The structure allows us to seamlessly coordinate our global community of hair loss researchers, patients, and other professionals, under the shared mission that we all want hair.
FT: When should we expect to hear results from the thyroid hormone study with Dr. Paus?
HD: We’ll receive the initial results from the study within the next four to six months. If the results are promising, we’ll continue testing in different combinations at different concentrations. We’ll then receive the secondary results within another 4-6 months, rendering the study complete within one year. The study’s goal is to generate commercializable intellectual property, resulting in a therapeutic that can be tested and distributed to our members.
FT: Is there an estimated timetable for when a theoretical new therapy involving a topical thyroid hormone could become available to the public?
HD: The timetable is ultimately up to regulators, but our goal is to bring the treatment to market within the next two years. We’re actively developing partnerships with pharmaceutical distributors, and plan to distribute any new therapy through one of our partners as quickly as possible.
FT: What type of perspective do you have after realizing that such a credible hypothesis (thyroid hormone study) was able to be funded for a relatively small cost after laying dormant for years?
HD: The total budget of this study is $125k. We believe it speaks to how vastly underfunded R&D for new hair loss treatments has been and continues to be. Due to various misaligned incentives in the hair loss industry, there is a massive funding void. Our mission is to enable patients and researchers to fill that void.
FT: Over the course of your first year running HairDAO what are a few things you’ve learned along the way?
HD: We’ve learned how dramatically the internet has reduced the barriers to information. Many of the best hair loss researchers we’ve encountered are self-taught on the internet. Anyone who is willing to put in considerable effort can turn themselves into a top notch hair loss researcher, capable of designing studies that generate valuable intellectual property. Our goal is to develop the tools and infrastructure necessary to empower anyone in the world to solve hair loss.
FT: How can people get involved in HairDAO and what is your next milestone event?
HD: Anybody can join our Discord community forum and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with what we’re working on. The entire organization is open-source, meaning that anyone can contribute so long as the rest of the community deems the contribution valuable. The best way to get involved is to introduce yourself on our Discord and let us know what you’re interested in working on. You can be fully anonymous if you’d like, as many of our members are. Our next milestone event is the launch of our patient portal and initial token auction, slated to take place in the next month or so.
Decentralized Science BioDAOs
With the announcement of funding the thyroid hormone study, HairDAO becomes the second BioDAO (a DAO working in biotech) to successfully fund research. Their predecessor was VitaDAO, a decentralized science community focused on solving aging and funding therapies in the longevity/healthspan space. Interestingly enough, one of the first companies that VitaDAO invested into was Turn Biotechnologies, a company utilizing cellular reprogramming to create rejuvenative biotherapies for various applications including hair growth. I hope you’ve enjoyed this introduction to HairDAO, and I invite you to do your own research to form your own opinions on the new emerging field of DeSci aka Decentralized Science.
Share your comments and questions on HairDAO and DAOs in the comment section below.
Posted in Hair Growth Treatment, HairDAO, Ralf Paus
Thanks for reading. I’ve invited both Andrews from HairDAO to respond to questions in this section.
Nice article Follicle. Nice to see more people seeking funding through alternative methods.
Not sure if I can post this here, but a very interesting thread on reddit with a a few comments from someone in China who believes a potential cure will be available soon (KX-826).
https://old.reddit.com/r/tressless/comments/zmdta5/bayer_hope_med_trial_dose_7/
Sure all things new treatment related are especially relevant to the HairDAO topic.
Follicle thought I’ve seen a message that cosmerna was delayed for late 2024 since they were declined by EU? Is this true
Ivan, I have no idea where these CosmeRNA rumors come from repeatedly, but I did not hear that from a source at the company.
https://discord.gg/BjCxaXH7EP
Here is the link to join our discord forum for all who want to join in the conversation and see what we’re doing.
Pretty cool FT. Also FT, and Yoda I’ve scheduled an appointment with to get a hair appointment on the 29th I’m excited but nervous. I’ll keep you guys posted.
Hair system scheduled for the 29th*
I wish you every success with your hair system Woofy 🙂
Thanks nobody 🙂🤙🏻
At this point, thanks again to the admin for the great coverage. You give us hope for the future and make sure that the trolls on this site don’t do their mischief ;-)))
I appreciate the kind words as always, nobody. Thank you
That’s a great initiative.
I do have a suggestion/question for the guys in charge.
The SCUBE3-protein is a naturally occurring molecule and therefore not patentable and with no safety issues (in the right amounts of course). It’s even fairly easy to produce and openly available to purchase.
Wouldn’t that be the perfect candidate for a crowd-funded project? The research from Plikus is there, one has to „just“ reproduce his experiments.
No legal troubles, no health-risks.
Hey Ben!
We actually looked at Scube-3 extensively over the summer. There were several proteins/molecules that ended up slightly higher on our list, but we very much believe in Dr. Plikus’s research.
The great part about HairDAO is that you can pitch Scube-3 (or any other ideas) openly to the community whenever you’d like. There’ve been several ideas that stalled in the past but have since been resumed.
Hello Andrew, thanks for your reply, appreciated.
How can I pitch SCUBE3? Do you have an instruction/tutorial? On your website?
How do you rank the molecules? Why did you decide for Paus‘ thyroid-candidate?
What are your expectations for it? I know Paus is the ultimate hair-geek, but eventually he never created an effective medication for hair loss, after decades of research – this makes me skeptic about him. Nobody wants to fund research that ends nowhere (again) for the sake of maintaining jobs in labs.
But there’s definitely some connections with the thyroid, Technoderma‘s approach is also directed at the thyroid – they are entering phase 2 trials soon.
Hey Ben—the best place to pitch Scube-3 is in our discord’s general or research channel. There you can try to build critical mass around the idea. Everyone will enable you the best we can (through creating a dedicated scube3 channel, supplementing your research, etc).
We initially ranked our projects on a Google Sheet but are moving to Airtable. Would love to add a Scube3 entry there (we have Amplifica, but I think the two are different).
We voted for the Paus study due to its likely ability to bring a new treatment to market as quickly as possible. Most projects will take 5+ years to fully realize, whereas we believed this study could provide real benefits to our members within 2 years.
TH analogues are also being pursued by Technoderma and Cutia, as you’ve highlighted. We believe our approach is best for the patient. Technoderma and Cutia are attempting to tweak TH for a molecule patent, but that may completely alter the drugs’ safety and broader efficacy profile. T3 and T4 have decades of mechanism of action and pharmacodynamics data that we can leverage, to know we are offering a historically well-tolerated treatment.
I’m really curious as to why a DAO was created for the purpose of funding research. It seems unnecessarily complicated for people not familiar with the concept but who just want to contribute. A more straight forward crowdfunding would have sufficed.
Hey Jack!
A DAO is actually the most efficient vehicle to incentivize our global community. We looked at all the alternatives. For example, for us to issue shares of a global company to our global member base would cost hundreds per transactions. As a DAO, it costs almost $0 per transaction.
So I understand that it can help to form a community of enthousiasts. But how would people that want to donate some money do that easily? I was looking around but couldn’t find a donation button on the site. Maybe providing an easy way for that could help fund more research.
@ Andrew Bakst … thanks for answering questions. Whats your opinion about natural cosmetic compounds like Hemp CBD or Glutamic Acid? They seem to give dramatic effects with little to no sides and are free available to use.
Hi John!
(Just my opinion–there are likely many others in the DAO) CBD would be interesting if one’s hair loss is stress-related. I don’t think it will be particularly helpful for people with genetic hair loss, but my opinion’s far from conclusive. Re glutamic acid, I haven’t seen promising work in humans yet. Mouse models are quite misleading (although they are better than nothing), due to that mouse hair follicles are significantly different from human hair follicles.
We’re definitely more inclined to search for compounds that can make a large difference, which tend to be regulated as drugs. That said, if we can find a natural solution, that would certainly be ideal.
Hi admin, i really appreciate what you and Hair Dao is doing for the AGA community (a community which is historically neglected, but nowadays things are changing). Ralf paus is a very well known researcher and know a hell lot more about hair follicle biology than me. Having said that, i don’t think thyroid route is tye best route to bring a effective treatment/cure for AGA. Twist 1, Rspondin ( a functional cure , if cancer chances are lowered or eliminated) , anything downstream of TGF beta will be a much more better route.
Hi Franklin! We’re looking at Twist-1, Rspondin, and TGF-B extensively. Hop into our Discord if you’d like to find others who are also researching them in depth. There are a whole lot of people very passionate about Twist-1 and TGF-B. Ideally we can continue to pursue all of them in parallel, without focusing all of our energy on a single treatment.
Thanks for the feedback Franklin. I’m wondering, where did you hear about Twist-1 or Rspondins?
@ Andrew Bakst … HairDAO Pipeline shows StimuSil. How are you involved?
Are there more devices currently planned with StimuSil or also with other companies?
Hey John—Micho, one of Stimusil’s co-founders, is very active in our community.
We haven’t agreed to anything yet with them, but are excited about what they’re building and may partner/collaborate in 2023.
We’ve talked to several other device companies, but Micho has been first-in-class. Definitely reach out to him in our Discord if you want to learn more about them.
Is there anything coming out in 2023? I feel like oral minox + dut is maintaining my hair but I’m not regrowing anything in my crown or midscalp
The siRNA cosmeceutical CosmeRNA is slated to come out early 2023.
I have the feeling CosmeRNA will be a massive disappointment with 2 hairs more after 6 months daily use. … Mane should be out soon too. Lets see what they offer. At least they bring a home use device.
Devices for in office or in clinic use will be fail too. Thats why I hope for Stimusil will be home use. Same for Moogene.
What’s mane?
Mane Biotech
While I don’t know whether CosmeRNA will be a disappointment or not John, the product showed a 7 hair increase in the 5mg version in their journal study, which is what they are releasing on the market.
This seems like an exciting development.
I know Dr. Paus’ company Cutaneon is looking into a product for reversal of grey hair also.
Would this be something this initiative can potentially get behind as well?
Hi Raj! We’re primarily focused on androgenic alopecia, but have explored several anti-graying options as a result. We’ll likely find that there is overlap in treatments for both conditions over time.
Thank you for your reply, Andrew. I very much hope you find treatment overlaps and we get some sort of treatment for both.
People underestimate the psychological effect premature greying has. It is profound and treatments for it should be pursued.
I appreciate your efforts!
One thing I might add Raj, is in the way HairDAO is intended to operate, it would allow people (or groups of people) who have interests in gray hair reverse therapies to create a plan for a treatment and present it to the community, and at everyone’s personal discretion, to fund it.
I wish you a merry and contemplative Christmas
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
As someone who is in crypto and blockchains for years and also in IT i can guarantee that this is just another ponzi scam. Stay strong bros… this ain’t the solution……
I already notified the SEC
What a baseless and senseless comment. I don’t mind contrasting opinions or questions, but your comment is 100% defamatory. You provide no evidence-based explanation on how you came to your conclusion and the credentials you present of yourself are “trust me I know bro”, those type of comments are always unwelcome here.
I don’t know why everyone is so excited about hmi-115. It’s literally one person who has positive results. We don’t even know how the other trial participants reacted. If it’s slightly better or not etc and what side effects others faced. We also do not know how long the patients results will last. Is it something that needs to be repeated every 6months and what’s the long term effects of restricting prolactin receptors. And if it needs to be repeated what’s the cost of such procedures? Do patients need to be on dht inhibiting drugs to maintain the new results?
Also we don’t even know whether trial 2 or 3 will commence at all. So many uncertainties.
Hi Kostas–not sure if you read the interview, but all of our operations are open-source (meaning that they are fully open to the public). It is extremely easy for any DAO participant regulator to see what assets we hold at any point in time–just need to look up hairdao.eth on any block explorer. This is in stark contrast other economics entities whose books are closed-source.
hello doctor folliclethought
can you please cover hmi115 as it’s the most promising cure for hair loss ever created
thanks
Hi Sunny, I know some people are getting excited about one message board man who claims to be in the HMI trial and is experiencing amazing results, and I’m not saying that the claims are impossible, I just don’t feel that it’s anything concrete to report on at the moment. Perhaps if there were photos it would be a little more substantial. If more people like this begin to pop up on the internet I would give it a closer look, for now it’s one man’s self evaluation and I wish him well. I think when clinical trial results are reported by the company all will have a more legitimate idea of HMI-115’s potential.
Hey follicle thought!
Quick question, I remember there used to be a visual with a timeline of anticipated treatments currently underway on the site but I was having difficulty finding it recently. Does this still exists or was it removed/temporarily taken down?
Thank for you efforts and for any assistance that can be provided!
Hey follicle thought!
Quick question, I remember there used to be a visual with a timeline of anticipated treatments currently underway on the site but I was having difficulty finding it recently. Does this still exists or was it removed/temporarily taken down?
Thank for you efforts and for any assistance that can be provided!
Question, yes please do a search for “Hair Regeneration 2022” on your search engine and it should come up! It’s the Ultimate Guide. Thanks for asking.
So many research and article,but there isn’t any treatment.😭
Is there any news about kintor?
I thought that there would be a formal update from CosmeRNA by the end of the year and was hoping to share it with members of the interested audience, yet it does not seem to be here yet, so apologies in advance if it’s not shared by the end of the year. There then would be a very high likelihood it will come in Jan or Feb.
Thanks alot FT,is CosmeRna a definit treatment?what about kintor?
Kintor news updates have been rolling in. You can scroll down the updates page to read all about Kintor over the past year. They will likely be approved in 2024 in China now, if all goes well.
https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Aautocomplete%3A973070369&keywords=stemson%20therapeutics&origin=FACETED_SEARCH&position=0&searchId=29648ad1-023b-4bf0-8014-ef64b46f9dea&sid=QsX&sortBy=%22date_posted%22
What was that link YoYo, it did not come up for me? News on Stemson?
Oh my bad FT you won’t be able to see it on your phone only your desktop, I’ll resend the link. It’s just an optimistic post from Stemson thus far. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7013899232692637696/
Yo-yo,
That is pure poppy-cock and heresay . We have heard stemsom saying that over and over again. They will not deliver anything , let’s be honest with ourselves . They have a very weak team. Even majority of the team is young university students a couple career pHDs
But let’s see what happens . Cheering for them regardless
Lol ok
I’m cheering for every company working on real treatments (as you’re aware anyways). We’ve got room in this space for moonshots as well as 0.5 incremental improvements.
For sure I just personally have never heard histology of the regenerated hair follicles, epithelial root sheath around hair shafts, sebaceous glands etc. Even the pessimistic folks can’t argue that this level of advancements haven’t been seen prior. This is huge information as the direction they seem to be going in is a positive one, let’s hope we see some pictures of their pigs next year lol.
Thanks for amazing work you do follicleThought
Happy new year and let’s hope that 2023 turns out to be as good or even better than it was in 2020 in terms of hairloss research progression. I’m keeping my eyes out for Kintor , Hopemedicine and all the teams working on tissue regeneration
Thank you Mr Singh, let’s see something good and fulfilling in 2023. 🙏
Hey Admin,
Came across a hair clone update in an interview from Dr Farjo found here.
https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/66830-hair-clone-update-hair-transplant-network-podcast-ep-19/
It mentions in the comments that the treatment is available on recommendation in the UK, though I had no luck actually getting a response to clarify how they want to work the initial offering, so might be something to follow up on incase they would actually respond to you?
Sure, I’ll look into this Skye. Thanks
Mane Biotech has updated their website:
Closing sign ups for early bird discount on 14th of January. Seems like things are moving forward. Fingers crossed.
Nick, Mane never proved that their method works. No papers, no studies, no trials.
It’s a scam – until they prove otherwise.
Very true Ben but it’s something lol
@Ben @YoYo
Please check out my post on Reddit for more informations:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tressless/comments/1030v44/update_mane_biotech_data_release/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I’m awaiting to see complete results from Mane and would not comment further until then.
New Follicle Thought article coming tomorrow, btw.