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Research Team

Head Of Research

Jennifer Dillon, PhD

Jennifer leads HairClone’s research into optimising and delivering our personalised cell therapy for rejuvenating miniaturising hairs.

Jennifer leads HairClone’s research into optimising and delivering our personalised cell therapy for rejuvenating miniaturising hairs. She comes from thirteen years of cell biology experience in the fields of stem cells and cancer research in both the UK and US. Jennifer gained a PhD in Molecular Cancer Studies from the University of Manchester researching cellular responses to the tumour microenvironment. She then spent four years as a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, investigating treatments for head and neck cancer and coordinating sample and data collection from numerous clinical trials, which have informed changes to treatment protocols.
Research Scientist

Willow Abbott, MSci

Willow is a Research Scientist for HairClone, where she works towards the development of HairClone’s personalised cell therapy and the analysis of genetic markers within hair follicle cells.

Willow gained her First-Class (Honours) MSci in Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham in 2023, where she completed a 6-month extended research project looking at the interactions between gut bacterial outer membrane vesicles and immune cell functional responses. The role enhanced her technical skills in human sample processing, cell culture use and flow cytometry. Willow is now a Research Scientist for HairClone, where she works towards the development of HairClone’s personalised cell therapy and the analysis of genetic markers within hair follicles that can predict balding and could be used to monitor response to therapies.
Post-doctoral Research Scientist

Summit Lumbu, PhD

Dr Summik Limbu was part-funded by HairClone for her PhD under the supervision of Dr Claire Higgins, which she gained in 2022 from Imperial College London. Summik continues to work closely with HairClone.

Dr Summik Limbu gained her PhD under the supervision of Dr Claire Higgins in 2022 from Imperial College London and continues to work closely with HairClone. Her thesis looked at genetic determinants of androgenic alopecia and the differences between thinning and non-thinning hair biology. Summik graduated from University of Birmingham with a First-Class Honours in MSci Biochemistry. After graduation, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, where she joined the Cellular and Phenotyping group to derive induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with genetic mutations in their DNA repair pathways. In 2017, she joined Dr Claire Higgins’s lab as a PhD student to research the role of the hair follicle dermis in follicular miniaturisation which is co-funded by HairClone.