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

我们的毛囊是我们所有人中最接近永生的。这是人体内唯一在一生中不断再生和退化的器官，自从我在组织工程和再生医学模块专业的第三年了解到它们以来，我就一直对它们着迷。具有讽刺意味的是，在顿悟后的几个月里，她被诊断出患有雄激素性脱发(AGA)。这就是这些器官的紊乱，在游戏中给了我真正的皮肤。亲眼目睹这一领域的临床相关性只会促使我更多地在这一领域寻求学术生涯。脱发是一个价值数十亿美元的行业，但目前还没有治疗雄激素性脱发的药物、逆转或治疗方法，也就是所谓的花样秃顶或毛囊微型化。在现有的两种治疗方法中(只对50%的患者有效)，这两种方法的发现都是偶然的--这些治疗方法只会推迟发病，不能逆转疾病。正如这种疾病的俗称--模式秃顶--毛囊小型化只影响额部头皮上的特定区域毛囊。希金斯实验室独一无二地获得了额部和枕部头皮的匹配临床样本，研究了这种模式背后的机制。对于我的博士学位，我提出了三个独立但互补的工作流程，以便在其中一个被证明是徒劳的情况下重新冒险。这些目标中的每一个都有助于探索一种预防和逆转脱发的再生方法。

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.