Human Hair Grown On Mice Presents A Possible Solution To Baldness

In an effort to reduce the pain of losing one’s hair, a startup is endeavoring to find a way of encouraging hair to keep growing on a head, even if natural baldness begins to kick in. 

Medical startup dNovo is exploring ways to leverage stem cells to do this, and its experiments so far have yielded rather promising—if not strange-looking—results. Because up until now, the tech has been tested on mice. 

Ernesto Lujan, founder of dNovo, explains to MIT Technology Review that although it’s believed that humans are born with all the hair follicles required and these disappear for good over time, he believes that the tech he’s creating can help to remake them again. 

This is simply done through genetically reprogramming regular cells that we still have despite growing older, such as skin or blood cells.

After modifications, these become “general” stem cells capable of growing any sort of tissue. This, of course, includes hair. 

We “now understand cells as a ‘state’” as opposed to sticking to one fixed identity, says Lujan. So, “we can push cells from one state to another.” 

Much more research is needed before this can become a viable solution to hair loss. But considering the patient can use their own cells to regrow hair in a more natural way than many remedies currently on the market, it looks pretty promising. 

[via ZME Science and Futurism, image via dNovo]