From hair loss entrepreneurship to life-changing drug discovery

In 2015, Dr Sincengile Ntshingila found herself between jobs after more than a decade in public health economics. Instead of diving back into the corporate or government sector, she decided to bridge the gap by opening a hair salon. It didn’t take long to identify a niche in the market catering to those experiencing hair loss.

Little did she know that this would lead to a PhD in trichology within The Hair and Skin Research (HSR) Lab at the University of Cape Town (UCT) as well as the patenting of a new and improved drug for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia (also known as male pattern baldness).

At the time of opening her hair salon, Sincengile had no experience in hairdressing, let alone trichology.

“I called myself a hair loss restoration centre, and not a clinic, just to make sure that people didn’t think I could offer them any kind of dermatological treatment,” she explains. “I did,

however, do in-depth research about formulating cosmetic products that could assist with hair loss and ended up formulating a couple of my own.”

Within no time, Sincengile’s services and formulations were in such high demand that she could hardly keep up.

During this time, she also made an important discovery: most existing hair loss clinics in South Africa were not geared toward treating black people and often ended up causing more harm than good in these clients.

“A lot of people came to me with aggravated problems after being treated at those clinics, but I didn’t always know how to help them.”

“So, I decided, if I’m going to do this the right way, I had better go back to school.”

Improving existing treatments

With an MSc in Health Economics behind her name, Sincengile was able to enrol for a PhD in Trichology within UCT’s Department of Dermatology in 2018.

Over the next five years, her research focused on screening for a new drug to treat androgenetic alopecia.

“Currently, there are only two drugs that have been approved by the FDA, but both have unpleasant side effects and require continuous use to be effective,” Sincengile explains. “Our aim was to screen for drugs that would have fewer side effects than these standard drugs.”

For the first few years of her research, the biggest challenge was trying to resolve the structure of the protein that the drug would have to target through crystallography.

“We tried for about three years and just couldn’t get it. Fortunately, in 2021, a collaborative study led by a group of laboratories successfully resolved it.”

This enabled Sincengile and her team to understand how the protein works and interacts with different hormones, which made the search for a drug that will bind specifically to the active site and cause less side effects much easier.

Making use of computer software for further screening, they were able to discover a high-performing drug and ten of its analogues.

“We’ve tested six in lab studies with sterling results and are preparing to test them in animal studies next,” Sincengile says. “I’m hoping that this wouldn’t take us more than 18 months to complete.”

Parallel to this, Sincengile has also turned her attention back to formulating cosmetics.

“We’ve been lucky to get funding from the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), so we are currently redeveloping the two cosmetics that we already have and then we’ve also added five more products.”