Reporter tries Acorn Biolabs, the Canadian startup turning plucked hair into a personal stem cell bank
kyliebytes · x · 2026-11-03
Core Memory's Kylie Robison got a first-hand look at Acorn Biolabs, a Toronto biotech startup that banks your stem cells. In a hospital basement, staff plucked hairs strand by strand to collect living tissue bulbs from the follicles — each bulb holds skin cells, connective tissue cells and a small supply of adult stem cells.
Acorn grows these cells in the lab, collects what they secrete (the "secretome"), and returns it as a topical product marketed for skin, hair and scars — an experimental approach to personal stem cell banking.
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