For millennia, thick, healthy hair has symbolized both masculine virility and feminine appeal. So when hair thins or disappears altogether—which happens to approximately 80 percent of men and 50 percent of women—the hit to self-esteem can feel almost existential.
Typically, hair toggles through phases of activity and rest, governed by the hair-follicle stem cells. In periods of activity, these cells awaken and regenerate the hair follicle, developing into the different components that make up hair. But when they’re resting, the hair stops growing and eventually falls out. With illness, stress, or an unlucky roll of the genetic dice, these stem cells can become permanently dormant. Soon, however, hair loss sufferers might have a few new regrowth options in their toolkit.
ABS-201 is a groundbreaking hair loss injectable developed by Absci, a company based in Vancouver, Washington, that is leveraging AI to create revolutionary new medications. ABS-201 targets the prolactin receptor, a protein that typically plays a role in mammary development. Unlike other hair loss treatments like minoxidil and hair transplants, ABS-201 doesn’t just prevent further hair loss—it encourages hair regrowth.
ABS-201 works by shunting the dormant hair follicles back into a different phase of the hair cycle called the anagen phase. No other drugs target the prolactin receptor in the same way, says Anthony Rossi, MD, a dermatologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which partners with Absci.
This novel approach to treating hair loss is the result of AI-based drug discovery. The Absci team compares typical drug development to the impossible task of finding a needle in a haystack: a lengthy game of trial and error. But in using AI to develop the needle itself—in this case, the perfect antibody sequence—researchers were able to discover key antibody binding regions that could precisely target the prolactin receptor, thus ceasing hair loss. Using computer simulations, Absci was able to optimize certain drug qualities, including increased potency and decreased likelihood of negative immune response.
In a preclinical trial, the research team tested ABS-201 on macaques, a primate species that experiences balding like humans do. Incredibly, six months after treatment, the macaques had their full heads of hair again. McClain says the Absci team saw similar results when they tested the drug on mice in another preclinical trial. In that experiment, ABS-201 resulted in full hair regrowth after 22 days, whereas minoxidil only produced hair growth in one-third of the mice.
Absci began clinical trials, testing single ascending doses on humans, in December 2025. The company aims to commence a multiple ascending dose trial in the middle of 2026, according to the website.
Heather Christofk, PhD, and her collaborator, William Lowry, PhD—biochemist and stem cell biologist at UCLA, respectively—discovered a way to regrow hair by waking up dormant hair follicles.
“We found that hair follicle stem cells have a really different metabolism when they’re asleep versus when they’re active and giving rise to new hair,” Christofk says. Specifically, hair follicle stem cells that are “on” have more lactate, a key molecule for creating energy without oxygen. (Most cells create energy via a route that requires oxygen.) So Christofk wondered whether increasing lactate levels in sleeping hair-follicle stem cells might switch them on.
To test their theory, the researchers took advantage of a quirk of mouse biology in a 2017 study published in Nature Cell Biology. Mice are born without fur and their first few rounds of hair growth are synchronized. In this initial period, then, scientists can pinpoint the timing of the stem cells’ active and resting phases with exquisite precision. In one experiment, for example, they bred mice in which they could turn off the gene for lactate dehydrogenase, the enzyme that produces lactate. Unlike their normal peers, who regrew their fur 70 days after being shaved, these mice remained bald. Analysis confirmed that the animals had low lactate levels in their hair-follicle stem cells, and that lactate has a positive effect on hair growth.
On the flip side, when researchers genetically impaired the mice’s ability to move pyruvate (a molecule that turns into lactate) into their mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell), more of it was converted into lactate instead. As a result, these mice grew hair more quickly than their normal counterparts. The scientists then confirmed this by treating normal mice with UK-5099, a molecule that blocks the same pyruvate-moving protein. Those mice also sprouted hair earlier.
“It was remarkable,” Christofk says. “We saw hair growing on these mice at a time when they shouldn’t be growing hair.”
Lowry and Christofk soon recruited fellow UCLA professor and medicinal chemist, Michael Jung, PhD, who helped them design an analogue of UK-5099, dubbed PP405, which is applied topically to the scalp. Together, the three scientists later founded Pelage Pharmaceuticals, a company designated to further testing PP405. To date, the drug has gone through multiple clinical trials to test safety—including one that is currently ongoing, according to the company’s website.
The cure for baldness might be… sugar? It’s not the kind that you keep on your kitchen counter, but rather one specific type that already occurs in your body: deoxyribose sugar.
Our bodies naturally produce the substance, and it plays a key role in DNA stability and replication. Along with phosphate groups, deoxyribose makes up the backbone of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). When the double helix unwinds during replication, deoxyribose provides the structure for our biological machinery to copy the genetic code. And on top of being a building block of life, the sugar could apparently be the cure for hair loss, according to a 2024 study published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
Interestingly, the 8-year-long study didn’t start as an attempt to cure hair loss. The team was originally studying mice to understand if and how sugar could help heal wounds by encouraging new blood vessels to form. But in the process, the researchers noticed that the hair around the wounds was growing back faster in mice that had been treated with the sugar than those who hadn’t.
To further investigate, the team simulated testosterone-based hair loss—a common cause of hair loss in men—on unwounded mice, and found that small doses of the sugar again encouraged blood vessel formation that stimulated hair growth.
According to a press release, the sugar treatment is just as effective as minoxidil, which is one of the most well-known topical hair loss treatments on the market (it’s the active ingredient in Rogaine). So, as it turns out, the key to luscious locks may have been inside you all along.
February / March 2026
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Featuring:
➡ Archaeologists Found a Skeleton Wearing a Silver Amulet. The Discovery Is Rewriting the History of Christianity.
➡ The Stray Dogs of Chernobyl Are Rapidly Mutating. Scientists Are Still Trying to Figure Out What It Means.
➡ New Evidence Could Upend What We Know About the Charles Lindbergh Baby Murder
➡ Police Found Mysterious Notes in a Dead Man's Pocket. They Turned Out to Be Codes That Not Even the FBI Can Break.
December 2025 / January 2026
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Featuring:
➡ An Angel of Death Preyed on Hospital Patients for Years.
➡ How America's Most Advanced Lab Brought the Killer to Justice.
➡ A 3,000-Ton Locomotive Was Loose, Unstoppable, and Filled With Toxic Cargo
➡ An Underwater Cave Promised Adventure and Glory. No One Expected It to Become a Tomb.
➡ Your Consciousness Can Predict the Future, Some Scientists Say
October / November 2025
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Featuring:
➡ Inside the Secret Island Where Death Is Optional
➡ A Legendary Ship Sank Without Warning. Fifty Years Later, Science Could Finally Solve the Mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
➡ This Tech Rebel Threw Away $900 Million in a Municipal Dump. Can Robots Find His Lost Fortune?
➡ Sex Workers, LSD, and Mind Control: What Happened in the CIA's Lab of Nightmares at 225 Chestnut Street
August / September 2025
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➡ The Worst Air Disaster in American History Happened in Broad Daylight. Will More Mistakes Keep Happening?
➡ NASA Has a Plan to Save Earth from Planet-Destroying Asteroids. It Sounds Even Wilder than Science Fiction.
➡ A Naval Officer Says Underwater UFOs Are Legitimate Threats. The Evidence Is Hard to Ignore.
➡ When You Die, a Psychedelic Molecule Shapes Your Final Moments of Consciousness, a New Theory Reveals.
June/July 2025
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Featuring:
➡ This Undersea Explorer Found America's Greatest Sunken Treasure. Then Things Got Really Weird.
➡ Is Bigfoot Hiding in the Swamps of Florida? This Group Says It Has Proof.
➡ Scientists May Have Gotten the Global-Warming Timeline Seriously Wrong.
➡ A Third State Now Exists Between Life and Death, Some Scientists Now Believe
April/May 2025
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Featuring:
➡ Scientists Successfully Revive a Dead Brain, Redefining the Boundary Between Life and Death
➡ Fingerprints Keep Leading to Wrongful Convictions. Why Do Courts Still Rely on Them?
➡ For 80 Years, the North Sea Held a Deadly Killer. Now Scientists Are Racing to Defuse the Threat.
➡ They Built the Quietest Room in the World. Why Is Everyone So Afraid to Step Inside It?
February/March 2025
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Featuring:
➡ This Guy Says He Knows the Truth About UFOs. Should We Believe Him?
➡ Scientists Are Now One Step Away From Solving Nuclear Fusion—And Unlocking Unlimited Energy.
➡ A Million-Dollar Heist Rocked the Art World— Then Amateur Sleuths Cracked the Case
➡ A New Era of Missile Warfare Has Begun—and the U.S. Isn’t Ready
December/January 2025
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➡ A Clue Hidden in a 400-Year-Old Map Might Have Just Solved One of America's Greatest Mysteries
➡ Inside the Deranged Plot to Smuggle Cocaine With an Armed Soviet-Era Submarine
➡ This Brilliant Engineer Helped Build the B2 Bomber—Then He Sold America's Stealth Secrets to China
➡ Your Consciousness Can Connect With the Whole Universe
October/November 2024
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Featuring:
➡Untold Secrets Reveal How the Castle Bravo Test Became America’s Worst Nuclear Disaster
➡ This Body Was Found Preserved on a Block of Ice in a Colorado Shed. It Had Been There for 30 Years.
➡ It Was Supposed to Be America's Greatest Victory in Space—Then It Became NASA’s Worst Nightmare
➡ The Sidewinder Missile Ruled the Air—Then the Soviets Stole the Design
August/September 2024
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Featuring:
➡This Man Knows the Truth About Amelia Earhart. Why Doesn't Anyone Believe Him?
➡ The Army's Machine Gun Is No Match for Cheap Chinese Body Armor. So It's Making a New One.
➡ Russia Built a Stunning Rival to the Supersonic Concorde—and Then It Fell From the Sky
➡ A Navy Admiral Says Underwater UFOs Are a Threat—and the Pentagon is Withholding Secrets
June / July 2024
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Featuring:
➡4 Black Eggs Have Surfaced From the Depths of the Ocean— and the Mysterious Creatures Inside Are Baffling Science
➡ A $2 Million Treasure Appeared in a Kentucky Cornfield. No One Knows Where It Came From.
➡ A Million-Dollar Heist Rocked the Art World— Then Amateur Sleuths Cracked the Case
➡ A New Era of Missile Warfare Has Begun—and the U.S. Isn’t Ready
April May / 2024
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Featuring:
➡The Man Who Knows Too Much About Area 51
➡ How the FBI Took Down the Internet's Most Dangerous Website
➡ A Staggering New Clue Emerges in the D.B. Cooper Hijacking Mystery
➡ The Wildest Prison Break in U.S. History
➡ The Secret to a Perfect Lawn Lies in One of These 10 Electric Lawnmowers
February / March 2024
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Featuring:
➡The Incredible Mystery of NASA’s Missing Moondust
➡ Inside the Final Fiery Minutes of the East Palestine Train Wreck
➡ Scientists Believe They’ve Unlocked Consciousness—and It Connects to the Entire Universe
➡ Why This Unstoppable Stealth Bomber Will Rule the Skies
➡ America Is Developing a New Nuclear Bomb—But Can’t Test Whether It Works
➡ The 8 Best, Expert-Recommended Solar-Powered Generators
Special Issue: Nukes
➡ How Deadly Nuclear Waste Is Menacing This St. Louis Neighborhood
➡ The Terrifying History of Russia's Nuclear Submarine Graveyard
➡ Strange Mutations in Stray Dogs Near Chernobyl Suggest They Are Rapidly Evolving
➡ America Dumped 56 Million Gallons of Radioactive Material Along the Columbia River—Then It Started to Leak
December 2023 / January 2024
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Featuring:
➡ A New Clue In Amelia Earhart's Disappearance Emerges From the Ocean
➡ How an Alleged Water Bandit Stole $25 Million in Water from Thirsty California Farms
➡ A Coal Mine Exploded and 300 Miners Died. What Went Wrong?
➡ China Just Built a Terrifying New Aircraft Carrier and May Soon Dominate the Seas
October / November 2023
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Featuring:
➡ How Rats Took Over Our Cities—And Why We Can't Stop Them
➡ This Language Is on the Verge of Extinction. Can It Be Saved?
➡ America's Deadliest Warplane Returns in a New Doomsday Role
➡ This Amateur Diving Group Kept Solving Cold Cases. Then Its Own Skeletons Surfaced.
➡ The Scientific Breakthrough That Could Put an End to Gray Hair.
August/September 2023
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Featuring:
➡ Immortality Is in Reach. But It’s Not What We Imagined.
➡ Your Next iPhone (and Nuclear Subs) Will Be Powered By Space Metal
➡Scientists Now Think We Can Build a Warp Drive
➡ China and Russia Have Cracked the Stealth Code. Can the U.S. Regain Air Dominance?
June/July 2023
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Featuring:
➡ The CIA’s Secret Plan to Build a Laser Beam Powered by the Human Mind
➡ The 747 Ruled the Skies—Then One Slammed Into a Mountain
➡The Race to Contain AI Before Singularity
➡ These Florida Homes Aren’t Just Hurricane-Proof—They’re Blueprints for the Future
April/May 2023
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Featuring:
➡ AI Is on the Cusp of Taking Control—This Is How It May All Go Wrong
➡ There’s No Weapon Russia Fears More Than the HIMARS Rocket Launcher
➡The Nuclear-Submarine Arms Race Is Getting Intense, and the U.S. Just Took a Massive Leap Forward
➡ Iran Is Becoming a Drone Superpower—By Stealing American Technology
February/March 2023
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Featuring:
➡ The Greatest Treasure Hunt in American History Ended—and Then Things Got Weird
➡ These Are the High-Powered Weapons Ukraine Needs to Send Russia Running
➡ The Secret War to Take Out Iran’s Fleet of F-14 Jets
➡ Russia Is Trying to Intimidate the U.S. with Hypersonic Missiles and Big, Scary Nukes—And It's More Than a Threat
December 2022/January 2023
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Featuring:
➡ Is Death Real?
➡ China and Russia Are Dominating the Hypersonic Arms Race—And It’s Not Even Close
➡ When the South Fork Dam Broke, a Pennsylvania City Washed Away. Which Town Is Next?
➡ The Navy’s New $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier Is Already Obsolete. This Weapon Can Save It.
October/November 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Can America's M1 Abrams Still Compete With China's and Russia's Latest Battle Tanks?
➡ Inside the Final Minutes of the Concorde Disaster—and How It Doomed Supersonic Travel for Decades
➡ How the Massive Cargo Ship Felicity Ace Sank, Taking $400 Million Worth of Exotic Supercars With It
➡ I Turned My Old Gas-Guzzler Into a Zippy EV for $15,000
August/September 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Cosmic Secrets of the 17 Most Powerful Mega-Telescopes on Earth—and Beyond
➡ Can the Air Force's Secret, Hypersonic Jet Reclaim the Skies From Russia and China?
➡ For 50 Years, the Zodiac Killer's 340 Cipher Stumped the FBI—Then Three Amateurs Cracked the Code
➡ America's Most Fearsome Howitzer Has Entered the War in Ukraine
June/July 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Every Single Drone Fighting in the Skies Over Ukraine
➡ How to Buy a New Car in 2022 Without Getting Fleeced
➡ This Megastructure Could Keep Us Alive Forever
➡ The Race to Revolutionize EV Batteries
Emma Frederickson graduated from Pace University where she studied communication and media. Prior to her time as an editor, she was a freelance science reporter. She enjoys covering everything from shipwrecks to pimple popping, but her favorite topics include climate change, conspiracy theories, and weird biology. When she’s not writing, Emma can be found hopping between coffee shops on the hunt for the world’s best oat milk cappuccino.
Connie Chang is a freelance writer in the Bay Area -- covering science, parenting and health. She's a recovering scientist, inveterate knitter and fan fiction enthusiast.
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