New AAD research grant focuses on understudied hair disorders
Maria K. Hordinsky, MD, chair of the Academy’s Wen Cy Pres Award Workgroup, and Susan C. Taylor, MD, member of the Wen Cy Pres Award Workgroup, highlight a new and significant opportunity for members to contribute to research for hair disorders, particularly those disorders impacting diverse populations.
The AAD Hair Loss and Alopecia Initiative in Research (HAIR) Grant Program will be offered to dermatologists, researchers, and trainees in the United States for research projects that address gaps in hair disorders research. Learn more about the HAIR Grant Program and apply now!
March 31, 2021
DermWorld Weekly: Can you provide background on how the HAIR Grant Program originated?
After the FDA began investigating, it came to light that the company was sitting on another 21,000 complaints. Amid the investigation, the agency tallied 1,386 more complaints of hair loss and scalp irritation from Wen’s products. The FDA has not yet determined a possible cause for the adverse events and has called on Wen to provide any data that might help them better understand the reports of hair loss associated with the use of the company’s products. Ultimately, Wen settled a class-action lawsuit for $26 million and is in the process of compensating consumers.
DermWorld Weekly: What conditions will be prioritized through this grant?
Dr. Hordinsky: The Academy Board, Council on Science and Research, and Wen Cy Pres Award Workgroup designated that the research grants focus on hair loss in diverse populations and skin of color. These are areas that have traditionally been underfunded in medical research. Disorders including central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia and traction alopecia are examples of hair disorders with a high prevalence in diverse populations that have been inadequately studied and funded. The Wen Cy Pres Award Workgroup looks forward to receiving research grant proposals to study these as well as other hair disorders.
DermWorld Weekly: How will the funds be organized and distributed?
Dr. Taylor: The HAIR Grant Program will offer one $200,000 grant (funded at $100,000 per year for two years with the first installment to be paid this year) specifically for research on central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA), as well as one $100,000 grant, three $50,000 grants, one $25,000 grant, and one $10,000 grant. Priority for the $10,000 – $100,000 grants will be given to research on CCCA, hair disorders in skin of color, racial differences or disparities in care, androgenetic alopecia in women, frontal fibrosing alopecia, lichen planopilaris, the role of nutrition in hair loss, and environmental/genetic factors in hair loss.
DermWorld Weekly: What do you hope will be accomplished by funding this research?
Dr. Taylor: Our hope is that the grants will fund much-needed research of understudied hair disorders that impact diverse populations and people of color. This research will foster the development of innovative new treatments, drive awareness of these important conditions, and further our understanding of the pathophysiology of these conditions.
Dr. Hordinsky: The Academy is not typically a grant-making organization, so we are very pleased to be able to support research that is critical to our specialty’s understanding of hair disorders in diverse populations.
