Scientists Are Using Neogenesis To Cure Your Hair Loss

No, not you, bald eagle; you're cool.

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Stem cell researchers from Durham University and Columbia University have discovered that it’s possible to regrow hair follicles in human skin. Even though it’s only been tested on mice, the researchers are confident that they’re taking the right steps towards developing a solution for alopecia and other forms of hair-loss.

Recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers (including a Angela Christiano, who suffers from alopecia herself) took cells from donor hair follicles, called “dermal papillae,” and were able to grow new hair from the cells in a process called “neogenesis.”

Christiano said that the discovery ”has the potential to transform the medical treatment of hair loss,”  and offers ”the possibility of inducing large numbers of hair follicles or rejuvenating existing hair follicles, starting with cells grown from just a few hundred donor hairs.”

This marks the very first time science has been able to generate new hair growth; usually the neogenesis fails because the dermal papillae lose their ability to induce hair growth in a petri dish. Slap the cells onto some infant foreskins (post-circumcision) instead, and suddenly – hair growth galore! They then grafted the cells onto mice, and the hair growth continued.

Next up – grafting them onto bald people! (We can only assume).

(via Forbes, image via Pam Waggener)

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Author
Sam Maggs
Sam Maggs is a writer and televisioner, currently hailing from the Kingdom of the North (Toronto). Her first book, THE FANGIRL'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY will be out soon from Quirk Books. Sam’s parents saw Star Wars: A New Hope 24 times when it first came out, so none of this is really her fault.