- Reaction score
- 2,634
This is more of a general thread that should address my own ignorance, as well as the many frustrations with the slow progress of discoveries making it to applicable usage. So while I was at the congress, a few things need to be addressed.
First, while it isn't theoretical physics grade complexity, it's still a long trial and error experience for many of the researchers. After speaking with one of the main researchers, they mentioned to me it took FOUR years of failure before a 'eureka' moment which resulted in TEARS from the overwhelming satisfaction of success. So yes, some things DO take a while to crack.
Speaking with Claire Higgins, many of them also have to actually TEACH outside of the lab, which will obviously take a large chunk of their time away from giving us baldies a solution, but that's peanuts of a problem compared to the next two points.
I asked specifically Beren Atac, 'Ok, so you guys are able to create a dermal papilla/follicle in a lab. What's stopping you from getting a human guinea pig and trying it out? Or even me! Take me, I'll sign up and you can run your experiments on me.' Regulations. STRICT regulations do not allow that, and that goes for both FDA as well as the european governing body for health. So I asked next; Alright, why not just try a mouse and see what happens? Mice are abundant, it can't be THAT difficult to get them and do some experiments?
And this is where I got furious inside when I heard the answer: EVEN MOUSE STUDIES, are ridiculously over-regulated. To even get the green light to do a mouse study, you need to submit papers, get things looked over by other professors, approved, etc. And GUESS how long that takes. 6-9 MONTHS. Yes, that is NOT a typo, it is SIX TO NINE MONTHS just to get approval on MOUSE studies. I couldn't wrap my head around it. To which I replied: "What?! 6+ months? And why do you need approval? WHO in the world would be more qualified to review and approve your work than YOU?" After all, Beren Atac and Gerd Lindner are at the very TOP in this field, right?!
So just imagine; You make a breakthrough discovery, you want to move it forward and make real world applications of it but instead your BOGGED DOWN by all this red tape. It's ridiculous. But it gets worse:
Finally, another major obstacle is funding. And this is where things get VERY frustrating too. 200,000 EU gets spent quickly... for all the individuals that are part of the research teams need to get paid, lab equipment, etc. and yeah, that would include them waiting around 6+ months just to get the go ahead to do a mouse study, But that's not even it.... suppose you ARE either Beren Atac or Gerd Lindner and you request funding... you're likely to get rejected... why? Because it's HAIR LOSS and not CANCER. To the guys in charge, hair loss is a joke and just like I've been saying for years; it's a major social stigma that desperately needs to be addressed. It's very clear that we, the 100,000+ members on the forums alone DO NOT DESERVE a break until cancer is solved first. And that's incredibly arrogant to view things. I can count on ONE hand how many legit researchers are working towards solutions for hair loss (Replicel, Histogen, Follica, Tsuji, Beren Atac/Gerd Lindner). I'd probably end up writing a NOVEL if I had to list the work being done for cancer.
So yeah, the work MAY be relatively easy in the end, but the REAL problem lies in regulations and social stigma. I'm sure Fred will have something to say to that, because he's always been right about the subject.
I hope that clears the air a bit... sure as hell does for me, so I suppose we could all put an end to the 'timing' criticisms being targeted towards the researchers as it's misguided (yes, I've been guilty of it too... I think the vast majority of us are).
Big thank you goes out to Dr. Claire Higgins, Dr. Beren Atac and Dr. Gerd Lindner for explaining everything.
First, while it isn't theoretical physics grade complexity, it's still a long trial and error experience for many of the researchers. After speaking with one of the main researchers, they mentioned to me it took FOUR years of failure before a 'eureka' moment which resulted in TEARS from the overwhelming satisfaction of success. So yes, some things DO take a while to crack.
Speaking with Claire Higgins, many of them also have to actually TEACH outside of the lab, which will obviously take a large chunk of their time away from giving us baldies a solution, but that's peanuts of a problem compared to the next two points.
I asked specifically Beren Atac, 'Ok, so you guys are able to create a dermal papilla/follicle in a lab. What's stopping you from getting a human guinea pig and trying it out? Or even me! Take me, I'll sign up and you can run your experiments on me.' Regulations. STRICT regulations do not allow that, and that goes for both FDA as well as the european governing body for health. So I asked next; Alright, why not just try a mouse and see what happens? Mice are abundant, it can't be THAT difficult to get them and do some experiments?
And this is where I got furious inside when I heard the answer: EVEN MOUSE STUDIES, are ridiculously over-regulated. To even get the green light to do a mouse study, you need to submit papers, get things looked over by other professors, approved, etc. And GUESS how long that takes. 6-9 MONTHS. Yes, that is NOT a typo, it is SIX TO NINE MONTHS just to get approval on MOUSE studies. I couldn't wrap my head around it. To which I replied: "What?! 6+ months? And why do you need approval? WHO in the world would be more qualified to review and approve your work than YOU?" After all, Beren Atac and Gerd Lindner are at the very TOP in this field, right?!
So just imagine; You make a breakthrough discovery, you want to move it forward and make real world applications of it but instead your BOGGED DOWN by all this red tape. It's ridiculous. But it gets worse:
Finally, another major obstacle is funding. And this is where things get VERY frustrating too. 200,000 EU gets spent quickly... for all the individuals that are part of the research teams need to get paid, lab equipment, etc. and yeah, that would include them waiting around 6+ months just to get the go ahead to do a mouse study, But that's not even it.... suppose you ARE either Beren Atac or Gerd Lindner and you request funding... you're likely to get rejected... why? Because it's HAIR LOSS and not CANCER. To the guys in charge, hair loss is a joke and just like I've been saying for years; it's a major social stigma that desperately needs to be addressed. It's very clear that we, the 100,000+ members on the forums alone DO NOT DESERVE a break until cancer is solved first. And that's incredibly arrogant to view things. I can count on ONE hand how many legit researchers are working towards solutions for hair loss (Replicel, Histogen, Follica, Tsuji, Beren Atac/Gerd Lindner). I'd probably end up writing a NOVEL if I had to list the work being done for cancer.
So yeah, the work MAY be relatively easy in the end, but the REAL problem lies in regulations and social stigma. I'm sure Fred will have something to say to that, because he's always been right about the subject.
I hope that clears the air a bit... sure as hell does for me, so I suppose we could all put an end to the 'timing' criticisms being targeted towards the researchers as it's misguided (yes, I've been guilty of it too... I think the vast majority of us are).
Big thank you goes out to Dr. Claire Higgins, Dr. Beren Atac and Dr. Gerd Lindner for explaining everything.