Hair-follicle derived stem cell banking service permits people to protect their cells for future medical and aesthetic functions.
Cryopreservation is formally, er, sizzling?! Following yesterday’s story about Laura Deming’s new cryonics venture, immediately we convey you the story of Canadian startup Acorn Biolabs, which has closed greater than $8 million in Sequence A funding to advance its follicle-based stem cell cryopreservation service. The Toronto-based customized regenerative drugs firm says it has developed a know-how that permits the extraction and preservation of stem cells from hair follicles, which can be utilized to develop customized therapies at accomplice clinic places throughout North America.
Acorn’s hair-follicle derived stem cell banking service, which was launched in Canada and the USA final 12 months, permits people to protect their cells for future aesthetic and medical functions. The cell assortment course of requires the gathering of fifty intact hair follicles, which the corporate claims are a great supply of cells as a consequence of their skill to be collected non-invasively and their pure replenishment. Hair follicles comprise a wide range of beneficial tissues and stem cells, akin to keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and progenitor stem cells, which might differentiate into varied cell sorts.
The collected cells endure viability evaluation earlier than being cryogenically frozen at -196°C (-320.8°F), halting the getting older course of and stopping additional injury. Acorn says the preserved cells can later be used to provide customized stem cell-based therapies, that are wealthy in exosomes, progress elements, and matrix molecules. The corporate’s imaginative and prescient is to permit shoppers to capitalize in future on the preserved cells to rejuvenate tissues, help harm restoration, and fight illness.
Acorn plans to make use of the funds to increase its portfolio of beauty merchandise and improve its market presence, with the launch of its first topical product anticipated inside the subsequent 12 months.
“On the core, we facilitate the gathering, growth and storage of a affected person’s personal cells by our hair-follicle primarily based cryopreservation enterprise,” mentioned Acorn CEO Drew Taylor. This enterprise mannequin has proven regular progress since launch, and we count on it to speed up by funding in direct-to-consumer promoting and in-clinic promotion. This funding spherical additionally allows Acorn to execute on our sturdy pipeline of potential beauty makes use of for these cells, together with hair and pores and skin functions, which we count on to launch in North America within the subsequent 12 months.”
The funding spherical was led by medical aesthetics firm Merz Aesthetics, with participation from TELUS International Ventures, MDE Investments, The Leslie Group, Lee Li Holdings, and numerous particular person physicians specializing in medical aesthetics, orthopedics, and longevity.
Jon Parrish, Chief Company Improvement Officer at Merz Aesthetics, highlighted Acorn’s relevance within the rising subject of “regenerative aesthetics,” which seeks to stimulate the physique’s personal programs to restore and restore the construction and integrity of getting older pores and skin.
“We want to spend money on alternatives that lie on the intersection of regenerative aesthetics and customized drugs and our funding in Acorn Biolabs instantly aligns with this technique,” he mentioned.
