The role of the hair follicle and its environment in androgenetic alopecia

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Our hair follicles are the closest to immortality any of us are likely to come. These are the only organs in the human body to continuously regenerate and degenerate throughout our lifetimes and I have been fascinated by them ever since I learned about them during the third year of my degreein the tissue engineering and regenerative medicinemodule. Ironically, within months of that epiphany, she would go on to be diagnosed with androgenic alopecia (AGA). This isa disorder of these very organs giving me, very literally, real skin in the game.Seeing first-hand the clinical relevance of this area only motivated me more to seek an academic career in this field.Hair loss is a multibillion-dollar industry yet there exists no drug, reversal, or cure for androgenetic alopecia, otherwise known as pattern baldness, or follicle miniaturisation. Of the two existing treatments available (which only work in 50% patients),both were serendipitous in their discovery -these treatments only delay onset and cannot reverse disease.As indicated by this disease's colloquial name-pattern baldness-follicle miniaturisation only affects specific regionalised follicles on the frontal scalp. The Higgins lab has unique access to matched clinical samples from the frontal and occipital scalp, investigate the mechanisms underlying this pattern. For my PhD, I propose three independent yet complementary workstreamsin order to re-risk my proposal should one prove futile. Each of these aims contribute to the same goal of exploring a regenerative approach to both prevent and reverse hair loss.