Why not start a Consortium to protect our Interest?

Stem cell; cell based hair therapy
21

» Who should be choosen as the board members?

As Baldie42 mentioned, most of the people are unwilling to step up because they don’t want to show their weakness. So the person should be ready for public exposure we are going to get. Second, the person should be based in US or (maybe UK too) that would make coming to board meetings etc a lot easier. Third, the person has to have some sort of reputation on these boards and willing to spent time/energy working for this cause. And not just interested in adding something on their resume!

» I think the reason your not getting much of a responce to this idea,is due
» to the fact that most of us would rather hide the fact that we think we’ve
» a problem with hair loss.That would make us seem weak and pathetic to most
» people!

I suspected that too…but seriously guys…you have to make a decision, either live your life online watching these boards or do something about it!
Its not that everyone would be getting exposure…most of the people just have to donate, its only the people managing the consortium who are goning to get exposure.
Remember, Intercytex supposedly has run into funding issues…even if we can raise $5-10 million we can fund phase-II/III and also get real information about whats going on with the trials.

» This is yet another reason why the focus of this to the outside world
» should be on women and children and cancer patients.

Good point AJ…we can definitely add that on our manifesto and fund trials for that as well. Would definitely make getting funding a lot easier!

22

This thread has inspired me to actually register on this forum - I believe this is very much the way forward…

… there are obviously huge challenges to do with organising a project like this, but I really like the idea of a duel pronged attack: X Prize / research investment.

I’d like to throw in an example of a funding model I quite like – is anyone here familiar with the M-Foundation?

http://www.mfoundation.org/index.php?pagename=thethreehundred

… this project is more speculative than a cure for hair loss – it’s a cure for aging itself…

They have a figurehead called Aubrey de Grey who travels the world doing mainstream media – and in terms of raising money - and they have a funding model called ‘the three hundred’. They also have a rich investor who’s offering a multimillion ‘matching fund’.

Basically, a bunch of donors sign a standing order ($20 a week is about $1000 per year), and from what I gather - donors can choose whether the cash goes into an X-Prize style fund or into a research programme… The pitch is basically this – “for less than a cost of a cup of coffee per day we could cure…”

… in exchange, donors have the option to be publicly recognised as one of the 300 forward thinking people who actually took action to find a cure (or alternatively they can remain completely anonymous)…

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Yeah…I was thinking the same about the title as well - its not catchy enough :). I’m even more surprised that almost none of the regular posters have even replied to this topic!

And I’m absolutely appalled at the reaction of these MEN who are willing to Waste their lives online and literally do nothing about it for either the fear of publicity or having to spend money - which they are losing in lost productivity anyways. Every single person who visits this site regularly does so because hairloss is affecting their quality of life - yet they don’t even bother showing their support.

Anyway, I did email Intercytex asking about what kind of partner they are looking for and also mentioned our interest in forming a consortium to fund research/trials…lets see what they have to say about this.

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26

Dear Willy, goata007 and Nick770,

it´s nice to read, that you seem to be really motivated.

I am a little bit confused about your posting, goata. You write, that the consortium should be for-profit (so probably some kind of venture capital company). On the other hand you think about collecting donations. A for-profit company would surely collect vew few donations. If you want to start a for-profit company you will have to look for investors (private or institutional) and you will need some financial experts, who run this company as a full-time job. Without these financial experts at the top of the company I don´t see any chance for success concerning this way.

I suggest a non-profit foundation. You could start such a foundation as a part-time effort (… later it may perhaps lead to a for-profit company start-up).
If you decide to do it this way, you have a clear roadmap how to start:
1- File the certificate of incorporation
2- Select individuals to serve on the board of directors
3- Develop vision and mission statements
4- Establish bylaws and board policies
5- Obtain an employer identification number (EIN)
6- Open a bank account and establish check signing procedures
7- File for federal tax exemption
8- Follow state and local nonprofit regulations
9- Find office space and obtain office equipment
10- Recruit staff and prepare a personnel manual
11- Establish a payroll system and procure necessary insurance coverage
12- Develop an overall fundraising plan
You will find a detailed explanation concerning each of these 12 steps at http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/tutorials/establish/index.html
So it would be quite clear how to start. You could start tomorrow, if you really wanted it!

By the way: In which country do you live: Willy, goata and Nick? I live in Germany.

Best wishes
Andreas

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» I am a little bit confused about your posting, goata. You write, that the
» consortium should be for-profit (so probably some kind of venture capital
» company). On the other hand you think about collecting donations. A
» for-profit company would surely collect vew few donations. If you want to
» start a for-profit company you will have to look for investors (private or
» institutional) and you will need some financial experts, who run this
» company as a full-time job. Without these financial experts at the top of
» the company I don´t see any chance for success concerning this way.
»

Non-profit is the way to go…the only reason I said for-profit was because…if we are able to fund & license a technology then we could make it available for people at affordable cost and put all the profit into researching more diseases. I didn’t mean by for-profit that the board of directors should be making any money! This is also the reason I mentioned consortium instead of an organization…it would be nice to make some money off of the cure and reinvest it into further research for the sake of humanity…this should also cast a positive spotlight on our cause as we’re not just thinking in terms of our bald heads.

At this point…most of my decision is based on what Intercytex has to say about this. If they are looking for a partner with an existing infrastructure i.e Bosley…then we pretty much are out of luck. However, if they are interested in partners who are willing to fund trials or pursue commercilzation then we do have a chance. I’ll let u guys know when Intercytex replies to my mail.

» By the way: In which country do you live:

I’m in U.S.

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» At this point…most of my decision is based on what Intercytex has to say
» about this. If they are looking for a partner with an existing
» infrastructure i.e Bosley…then we pretty much are out of luck. However,
» if they are interested in partners who are willing to fund trials or
» pursue commercilzation then we do have a chance. I’ll let u guys know when
» Intercytex replies to my mail.

In my opinion it would be a mistake to focus only on one HM company. As I already said: about 90 % of drugs fail during clinical trials. So we should support more than one research group! And we should support more than one research direction! HM will surely be a major step forward concerning hairloss therapy. But in my opinion it won´t be the ideal therapy. HM (at least first generation HM) will most probably only work together with a classic hair transplantation (you will probably need a classic hair transplanation to guarantee a natural hairline), you will probably have scars in the donor area, it will be a high-cost therapy, it will be a therapy only for some thousands of people as it can only be performed in highly specialized therapy centres and it will have to be repeated regularly as your hairloss continues. So HM won´t be a cure for millions of people, who suffer from hairloss. In my opinion we should also support other research projects, that have the potential to become such a holy grail therapy. As far as I can see gene therapy holds the greatest potential to become such a therapy. There have been several exciting research results concerning hair gene therapy since 1995, when AntiCancer Inc. demonstrated, that new genes can be delivered to hair follicles safely and selectively by liposomes ( DERMATEK ). More than 13 years have passed since AntiCancer published this landmark paper and gene therapy has finally arrived at a point, that makes a hair regeneration gene therapy realistic in the foreseeable future. So in my opinion a visionary consortium would not only support HM, but also other innovative research projects.

In my opinion there are at least four other researchers, who should be considered for funding:

  • Dr. Robert Hoffman
    Dr. Hoffman is the CEO of the small US biotech company Anti Cancer Inc. The AntiCancer researchers can be considered as one of the pioneers of biomedical hair research. Already in 1995 they showed, that therapeutic genes can be delivered selectively, effectively and safely to the hair follicle cells by using harmless fat bubbles (=liposomes). This study from 1995 was one of the first really significant breakthroughs for biomedical hair research and still the AntiCancer researchers belong to the best gene transport researchers of the world. It is extremly important to solve the problem of gene transport. Only if the therapeutic genes reach the hair follicle stem cells, a permanent cure for hairloss will be possible.

Selected Links:
http://www.anticancer.com (Homepage of Anticancer Inc.)
http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SUA06/bald.html

Selected Publications:

Hoffman, R.M., Margolis, L.B., and Bergelson, L.D. Binding and entrapment of high molecular weight DNA by lecithin liposomes. Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, FEBS Letters 93, 365-368, 1978
Li, L., and Hoffman, R.M. Hair growth and hair follicle proliferation in histocultured mouse skin. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, The Molecular and Structural Biology of Hair 642, 506-509, 1991
Li, L. and Hoffman, R.M. The feasibility of targeted selective gene therapy of the hair follicle. Nature Medicine 1, 705-706, 1995
Li, L. and Hoffman, R.M. Model of selective gene therapy of hair growth: liposome targeting of the active Lac-Z gene to hair follicles of histocultured skin. In Vitro Cell Dev. Biol. 31A, 11-13, 1995
Li, L. and Hoffman, R.M. Topical liposome delivery of molecules to hair follicles in mice. J. Derm. Sci. 14, 101-108, 1997
Hoffman, R.M. Topical liposome targeting of dyes, melanins, genes, and proteins selectively to hair follicles. J. Drug Targeting 5, 67-74, 1997.
Saito, N., Zhao, M., Li.L., Baranov, E., Yang, M., Ohta, Y., Katsuoka, K., Penman, S., and Hoffman R.M. High efficiency genetic modification of hair follicles and growing hair shafts. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 99, 1310-1314, 2002Hoffman, R.M. The hair follicle as a gene therapy target. Nature Biotechnology 18, 20-21, 2000.
Li, L., Mignone, J., Yang. M., Matic, M., Penman, S., Enikolopov, G. Nestin Expression in hair follicle sheath progenitor cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100(17), 9958-9961, 2003

  • Dr. Angela Christiano
    Dr. Christiano is doing her research at the Columbia University/New York. There she discovered the first gene associated with hair growth in 1998, the so-called hairless-gene. In the meantime Dr. Christiano has found several other hair growth related genes and she is doing specific studies for men and women to find the genes responsible for androgenetic alopecia and alopecia areata. She founded the biotech start-up Skinetics Bioscience in order to start human clinical trials to stop unwanted hair growth. In the future she also wants to start human clinical trials to regenerate hair growth. Dr. Christiano is interested in gene therapy and and cell therapy (often also called hair cloning/hair multiplication) research.

Selected Links:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol23/vol23_iss14/13.html
http://www.hairsite.com/library/abst-78.htm

Selected publications:

Ahmad, W., ul Haque, M.F., Brancolini, V., Tsou, H.C., ul Haque, S., Lam, H.M., Aita, V.M., Owen, J., deBlaquiere, M., Frank, J.A., Cserhalmi-Friedman, P.B., Leask, A., McGrath, J., Peacocke, M., Ahmad, M., Ott, J. and Christiano, A.M. (1998) Alopecia Universalis Associated with a Mutation in the Human hairless Gene. Science 279:720-724.
Frank, J., Pignata, C., Panteleyev, A.A., Prowse, D.M., Baden, H., Weiner, L., Gaetaniello, L., Ahmad, W., Pozzi, N., Cserhalmi-Friedman, P.B., Aita, V.M., Uyttendaele, H., Gordon, D., Ott, J., Brissette, J.L. and Christiano, A.M. (1999) Exposing the Human Nude Phenotype. Nature 398:473-474.
Panteleyev, A.A., Jahoda, C.A.B. and Christiano, A.M. (2001) Hair Follicle Predetermination. J. Cell Science 114:3419-3431.
Kljuic, A., Bazzi, H., Sundberg, J.P., Martinez-Mir, A., O’Shaughnessy, R., Mahoney, M.G., Levy, M., Montagutelli, X., Ahmad, W., Aita, V.M.,Gordon, D., Uitto, J., Whiting, D., Ott, J., Fischer, S., Gilliam, T.C., Jahoda, C.A.B., Morris, R.J., Panteleyev, A.A., Nguyen, V.T. and Christiano, A.M. (2003) Desmoglein 4 in hair follicle differentiation and epidermal adhesion: Evidence from inherited hypotrichosis and acquired pemphigus vulgaris. Cell 113:249-260.

-Prof. Elaine Fuchs
Prof. Fuchs (who has worked for many years at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute) is doing her research at the Rockefeller University. Prof. Fuchs belongs to the best developmental researchers of the world und was elected to be the president of the well-known American Society of Cell Biology in 2002. Already in 1998 she could show in animal studies, that it is possible to create completely new hair follicles by using the ß-catenin signal pathway. With this groundbreaking study Prof. Fuchs has opened the possibility, that in the future even completely bald people could have a full head of hair again. Recently Prof. Fuchs has also become very interested in hair stem cells.

Selected Links:
http://www.hhmi.org/fuchs
http://www.hhmi.org/news/fuchs2.html
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/fuchs.html

Selected publications:

Guo L, Degenstein L, Fuchs E: Keratinocyte growth factor is required for hair development but not for wound healing. Genes Dev (United States), Jan 15 1996, 10(2) p165-75
Gat U, Das Gupta R, Degenstein L, et al.: De Novo hair follicle morphogenesis and hair tumors in mice expressing a truncated beta-catenin in skin. Cell (United States), Nov 25 1998, 95(5) p605-14
Das Gupta R, Fuchs E: Multiple roles for activated LEF/TCF transcription complexes during hair follicle development and differentiation. Development (England), Oct 1999, 126(20) p4557-68
Fuchs E, Merrill BJ, Jamora C, et al.: At the roots of a never-ending cycle. Dev Cell (United States), Jul 2001, 1(1) p13-25
Das Gupta R, Rhee H, Fuchs E: A developmental conundrum: a stabilized form of beta-catenin lacking the transcriptional activation domain triggers features of hair cell fate in epidermal cells and epidermal cell fate in hair follicle cells. J Cell Biol (United States), Jul 22 2002, 158(2) p331-44
Alonso L, Fuchs E: Stem cells in the skin: waste not, Wnt not. Genes Dev (United States), May 15 2003, 17(10) p1189-200
Alonso L, Fuchs E: Stem cells of the skin epithelium. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (United States), Sep 30 2003, 100 Suppl 1 p11830-5

  • Prof. Dr. med. Ralf Paus
    Prof. Paus, one of the most innovative German hair researchers, works at the University of Luebeck. In cooperation with other German hair resarchers he is researching e.g. TGFß/BMP-signals during hair follicle development. The aim of this project is the realization of an old dream of hair research: the de novo induction of human hair follicles in vitro out of adult cell cultures.
    Additionally Prof. Paus has just finished animal studies with a new exciting therapy option against alopecia areata and is currently looking for a pharma/biotech partner in order to start human clinical trials.

Selected links:
http://home.foni.net/~magerl/
http://www.ukl.uni-freiburg.de/spp1028/projects.htm

Selected Publications:

Paus R, Handjiski B, Czarnetzki BM, et al.: Biology of the hair follicle. Hautarzt (Germany), Nov 1994, 45(11) p808-25; quiz 824-5
Paus R, Peters EM, Eichmuller S, et al:.Neural mechanisms of hair growth control. J Investig Dermatol Symp Proc (United States), Aug 1997, 2(1) p61-8
Paus R, Foitzik K, Welker P, et al.: Transforming growth factor-beta receptor type I and type II expression during murine hair follicle development and cycling. J Invest Dermatol (United States), Oct 1997, 109(4) p518-26
Stenn KS, Paus R: Controls of hair follicle cycling. Physiol Rev (United States), Jan 2001, 81(1) p449-494
Tobin DJ, Paus R: Graying: gerontobiology of the hair follicle pigmentary unit. Exp Gerontol (England), Jan 2001, 36(1) p29-54
Nakamura M, Sundberg JP, Paus R: Mutant laboratory mice with abnormalities in hair follicle morphogenesis, cycling, and/or structure: annotated tables. Exp Dermatol (Denmark), Dec 2001, 10(6) p369-90

Best wishes
Andreas

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» In my opinion it would be a mistake to focus only on one HM company.

I am in full favor of supporting various researchers and that is exactly what I mentioned in my first post. However, Intercytex is the closest to commercialization as we know. It would be a lot easier for us to get donations if we beat TRC drum…most of the board members know that TRC is the earliest they could get a treatment, so they probably be willing to pay something for it. All others you mentioned still have to go through trials not to mention safety issues associated with pathways/genes etc.

In essence, yes we would fund all sort of researchers but if we can partner up with Intercytex - obviously if there is a chance it would work - that would be a very good start for the consortium.

31

» » In my opinion it would be a mistake to focus only on one HM company.
»
» I am in full favor of supporting various researchers and that is exactly
» what I mentioned in my first post. However, Intercytex is the closest to
» commercialization as we know. It would be a lot easier for us to get
» donations if we beat TRC drum…most of the board members know that TRC is
» the earliest they could get a treatment, so they probably be willing to pay
» something for it. All others you mentioned still have to go through trials
» not to mention safety issues associated with pathways/genes etc.
»
» In essence, yes we would fund all sort of researchers but if we can
» partner up with Intercytex - obviously if there is a chance it would work
» - that would be a very good start for the consortium.

Obviously we agree in most points.
I think, it is time for adress exchange. What do you think?
It is great, that both of you (goata and Willy) live in the USA. If you really want to start this project in the USA, you will have my full support. The start of an official hair research organization, lead by a visionary team (that is brave enough to reveal their identity to the public) has been my dream for nearly 10 years! It would be really great, if we could finally realize this dream!!!
Best wishes
Andreas
E-mail: andreas_w_lutz@hotmail.com

32

Great idea. I have personally an issue about going public - from a professional point of view. Would it be sensible to wait 1st what Follica’s will come with? On the $$$ issue, we’re just over 1000 registered - and not everyone would be ready to invest on this idea.

» » » In my opinion it would be a mistake to focus only on one HM company.
» »
» » I am in full favor of supporting various researchers and that is
» exactly
» » what I mentioned in my first post. However, Intercytex is the closest
» to
» » commercialization as we know. It would be a lot easier for us to get
» » donations if we beat TRC drum…most of the board members know that TRC
» is
» » the earliest they could get a treatment, so they probably be willing to
» pay
» » something for it. All others you mentioned still have to go through
» trials
» » not to mention safety issues associated with pathways/genes etc.
» »
» » In essence, yes we would fund all sort of researchers but if we can
» » partner up with Intercytex - obviously if there is a chance it would
» work
» » - that would be a very good start for the consortium.
»
»
» Obviously we agree in most points.
» I think, it is time for adress exchange. What do you think?
» It is great, that both of you (goata and Willy) live in the USA. If you
» really want to start this project in the USA, you will have my full
» support. The start of an official hair research organization, lead by a
» visionary team (that is brave enough to reveal their identity to the
» public) has been my dream for nearly 10 years! It would be really great,
» if we could finally realize this dream!!!
» Best wishes
» Andreas
» E-mail: andreas_w_lutz@hotmail.com

33

» Great idea. I have personally an issue about going public - from a
» professional point of view. Would it be sensible to wait 1st what
» Follica’s will come with? On the $$$ issue, we’re just over 1000
» registered - and not everyone would be ready to invest on this idea.

I’m waiting for what Intercytex has to say about my mail…frankly I’m not really confident about that Follica procedure but hey…whatever works.

As of funding…we would definitely have to reach out to other hairloss forums and bald men in general. On the plus side there are loads of rich slick-bald men out there, so getting decent funding from them shouldn’t be much of an issue - if we can convince them about privacy :wink:

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Dear Willy, goata007, LatinLover and Nick,
please send me a short e-mail. As soon as I have recived your e-mail-addresses, I will create a mailing list, so that we can exchange personal messages.
Best wishes
Andreas
E-mail: andreas_w_lutz@hotmail.com

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36

Where do I sign up?
I’ll be willing to donate $5,000.
But where and how do we organize such a venture?
We’d have to make sure someone just doesn’t run off with the money.
Or we can just offer the money directly to Intercytex to finance a PHASE THREE study.
Come on guys… pony up.

37

I think that the country can’t be the US. I don’t want to create polemic or something but the US is extremely controlled by a minority and they won’t allow the idea to develop.

Europe could be a much better place to make this a reality.

It has to be a country with as few regulations as possible.

38

» i) Raising money would be easy, since we would have a trusted public
» company working for bald people with only one goal on its manifesto!
»
» ii) Even if we get 100,000 bald men to donate $1,000…we would have $100
» million in liquid cash at startup. Obviously, there are many rich bald men
» out there who wouldn’t mind donating even more!

It is painfully obvious that mainstream science views hair loss as a trivial problem. So, why shouldn’t we baldies put our fates in our own hands for a change and raise some money and do something about this dreaded affliction?

39

» Where do I sign up?
» I’ll be willing to donate $5,000.
» But where and how do we organize such a venture?
» We’d have to make sure someone just doesn’t run off with the money.
» Or we can just offer the money directly to Intercytex to finance a PHASE
» THREE study.
» Come on guys… pony up.

Finally someone with good spirits! Btw, I have been thinking about donating around the same too.

» It is painfully obvious that mainstream science views hair loss as a
» trivial problem. So, why shouldn’t we baldies put our fates in our own
» hands for a change and raise some money and do something about this
» dreaded affliction?

Exactly, It’s about time that we act like Men and find a solution to this disease, instead of hiding in rooms and wasting our lives!

» I think that the country can’t be the US. I don’t want to create polemic or
» something but the US is extremely controlled by a minority and they won’t
» allow the idea to develop.
»
» Europe could be a much better place to make this a reality.
»
» It has to be a country with as few regulations as possible.

I chose US because most of the funding will come from US (lot of money here) and also because the legal system here can be quite anal, so it provides a sense of security to the donators.

As of the regulations, since we won’t be doing any in-house research and merely funding reseachers in US & EU…I don’t see how any regulations would get in the way. If there is a chance that we have a possible treatment and we plan to commercialize it, we could have it available in EU or whichever place has less regulations.

40

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