Blog – Page 7

Hair transplants have exploded in popularity in recent years — so much so that flights returning from Turkey packed with men sporting freshly transplanted hairlines have become a meme. And the stigma surrounding the once-taboo procedure is lessening.

In August, John Cena said his recent hair transplant “completely changed the course of my life.” While effective, transplants are still surgeries that require thousands of dollars, time off work, and a multi-week recovery process.

However, FoLix, the first FDA-cleared fractional laser of its kind, administered in-office by a provider, offers men and women a surgery-free way to help with their hair loss. Dermatologists say that the new treatment, which began appearing in clinics over the past year, could be a game changer for patients who may not like the daily regimen of pills or the invasiveness of hair transplant surgery.

UCLA scientists, together with a team of international collaborators, have identified a promising new treatment strategy that can detect, kill and reprogram aggressive, treatment-resistant tumors like osteosarcomas and glioblastoma.

The findings, published in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, describe a novel approach that uses a specially engineered antibody, called DUNP19, to target a protein called LRRC15 that is found on the surface of certain aggressive cancer cells and the supportive stroma cells surrounding them. By pairing the antibody with radioactive particles, scientists can both visualize tumors for precise imaging and deliver targeted radiation therapy directly to cancerous tissue, while sparing healthy tissues.

When tested in mice, the LRRC15-targeted radionuclide therapy effectively slowed tumor growth, extended survival, and altered the tumor microenvironment to make it more receptive to an immune attack.