After the very encouraging recent news about China-based Yunce Medical’s progress in hair multiplication, I have yet more new positive developments to report on from China.
Dr. Wang Xusheng: Cultivation of iPSC Derived Hair Follicles
At the “Boao Cell Therapy Transformation and Application Conference” in April 2025, Professor Wang Xusheng from the hair follicle research laboratory of Sun Yat-sen University announced a breakthrough. He said that his research team has successfully cultured induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived hair follicles into large hair follicles (length of over 5 cm) that can be used for hair transplantation.
Per “Theo”, their technology is able to produce in vitro large human hair follicles (over 5 cm in length) from hiPSCs in a worldwide first. Their photo evidence of the large human hair follicles created from hiPSCs looks natural. According to the above linked article, the hair transplant industry standard is that only hair follicles with a length of more than 5 cm (from the back of the head, beard and chest) can be transplanted to treat hair loss. I was not aware of this till now. So the creation of 5 cm and longer hair via iPSCs is a big deal.
The team has also:
“Realized a complete culture technology system from somatic cells to human hair follicles. This lays the foundation for the in vitro regeneration of autologous hair follicles in patients with hair loss.”
Dr. Xusheng’s team is now working with hospitals to begin clinical trials of in vitro hair follicle regeneration. Technical details of their recent findings will be published in professional academic journals in the near future.
Note that Dr. Xusheng is an established hair loss researcher who has published numerous hair growth related studies in western publications. One of his most cited works from 2017 is in relation to the mechanism behind hair follicle neogenesis after wounding. His most recent co-authored paper from March 2025 is titled: “Direct reprogramming of human fibroblasts into hair-inducing dermal papilla cell-like cells by a single small molecule.”
Hair Multiplication Partnership: Dr. Xusheng and Yinguan Biotechnology
Professor Xusheng is planning to start hair multiplication related clinical trials in partnership with Yinguan Biotechnology. The work will take place at Jiangmen Central Hospital per an April 2025 cell clinical research related article. In there, it has the following quote:
“Professor Wang Xusheng took the field of hair regeneration as the starting point and elaborated on the technical process of cultivating hair follicles with stem cells, clinical application exploration, and industrialization results. He presented the current status and prospects of industrial development in this field to the participants.”
Dr. Nie Hemin: Artificial Hair Follicle Creation and Hair Regeneration
In November 2024, a Chinese hair loss researcher named Dr. Nie Hemin got his artificial hair follicle creation related patent approved. Dr. Hemin’s team created artificial hair follicles by mixing dermal papilla cells (DPCs) and hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs), and then culturing them in vitro. The in vitro construction method entails mixing DPCs and HFSCs in a quantitative ratio of 0.1:1 to 10:1. The resulting artificial hair follicle organ has a controllable size and complete structure that can be used in vivo hair follicle transplantation.
Note that the use of the word “artificial” in the patent is a bit confusing and could be a result of original translation issues. This invention is nothing related to what we know as “artificial hair implants“, also called “synthetic hair implants”.
Dr. Hemin was educated at Singapore University graduate and Columbia University. His list of studies can be found here. His artificial hair follicle creation related invention earned him a Chinese government award in 2022.
“Theo” also sent me an April 2024 Hunan Province related article in which you can find the below quote:
“Hunan University has brought the “Artificial Hair Follicles and Hair Regeneration” project, which achieves in vitro cloning of human hair follicles through three technical links: multi-source acquisition of human hair follicle-related stem cells; large-scale expansion; and in vitro construction of human hair follicle organoids, to solve the problem of insufficient number of transplantable hair follicles.”
Update from “Theo”:
Dr. Sun Yun, a Hunan University graduate, is part of the Nie Hemin lab research team, and co-author of several patents with Nie Hemin. He participated in the Hunan Province Talent Show for young scientists and graduate students and gave a presentation about their artificial hair follicles technology. The winner of this competition will receive major funding for their projects.
I spent one hour to compress the video and translate its contents a little bit. From what I did translate, they can produce from 1-100 artificial hair follicles that will grown like normal human hairs. They wanna raise 1 million dollars to build a proper R&D factory and start clinical trials. If one of your viewers knows Chinese or has a good AI app, he/she can try to make a more accurate translation. His presentation starts after 1:07:30 in the below video:
Another update is that they have applied for Hunan Province’s start-up company funding/grants facility recently.