Sanford-Burnham's hair-raising study - Using stem cells to grow new hair

[walrus]

It's a joke they can't work out the in's and out's of a hair follicle. It's beyond belief. I'm sure one day in kindergartens across the country when kids grow hair on their paintings everyone will look back and laugh at how simple it is. There should be no need for cloning... IT'S A HAIR FOLLICLE. I mean come on, what is so hard about it? If they can't work this out then there is no hope for anything serious.

The only joke here is your post.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

It's a joke they can't work out the in's and out's of a hair follicle. It's beyond belief. I'm sure one day in kindergartens across the country when kids grow hair on their paintings everyone will look back and laugh at how simple it is. There should be no need for cloning... IT'S A HAIR FOLLICLE. I mean come on, what is so hard about it? If they can't work this out then there is no hope for anything serious.

Whoever works out how to turn on and off the human hair follicle will be the most popular human of all time considering everyone is either trying to grow or remove hair from all over their bodies. Almost everyone has some kind of hair problem somewhere.

I hear you, man. I read how scientists actually grew a human brain in culture but we still do not have anything close to a solution for hair loss. Don't worry though, we still have our beloved hair transplants (sarcastic).

[hairlessM]

I hear you, man. I read how scientists actually grew a human brain in culture but we still do not have anything close to a solution for hair loss. Don't worry though, we still have our beloved hair transplants (sarcastic).

A bigger joke is that people actually think they are working on a fix for hair. It ain't coming, it really isn't. If it ever does come it will be by complete accident. The english medical journal, or whatever it is, has hair loss in the same basket as big ears! That's how seriously they take it. That's no joke either. So we can expect a solution around the same time we can make our ears smaller. What a great day for me that will be!

[sdsurfin]

The thing is that both of those things are about equally difficult. People are certainly working on a cure for hair loss, just not as many as we would hope. People are working on pretty much everything out there, even the most remotely unimportant things. Making a hair follicle is more complicated than making most organs. No one has made a normals functioning brain either, thats nonsense. Scientists have made pseudo-organs (except for things like vaginas, which are basically just a tube, and even those were not exactly the same as the originals), just like they have made pseudo hair follicles several times now. It's unfortunate that the media inflates things, and this forum is dumb because you end up following and putting your hopes on all the companies that necessarily fail on the way to something that works. The progress made in hair loss research is not minimal (if you're not impressed by the fact that someone can take an embryonic cell and create a hair follicle with it, even in a mouse, then you're an idiot) but we can't expect science to suit our personal agendas. It's only a matter of time before someone is able to make a follicle in a lab, there are plenty of people trying to do that. Once that happens, more money will enter the equation. It just takes time.

[gainspotter]

The thing is that both of those things are about equally difficult. People are certainly working on a cure for hair loss, just not as many as we would hope. People are working on pretty much everything out there, even the most remotely unimportant things. Making a hair follicle is more complicated than making most organs. No one has made a normals functioning brain either, thats nonsense. Scientists have made pseudo-organs (except for things like vaginas, which are basically just a tube, and even those were not exactly the same as the originals), just like they have made pseudo hair follicles several times now. It's unfortunate that the media inflates things, and this forum is dumb because you end up following and putting your hopes on all the companies that necessarily fail on the way to something that works. The progress made in hair loss research is not minimal (if you're not impressed by the fact that someone can take an embryonic cell and create a hair follicle with it, even in a mouse, then you're an idiot) but we can't expect science to suit our personal agendas. It's only a matter of time before someone is able to make a follicle in a lab, there are plenty of people trying to do that. Once that happens, more money will enter the equation. It just takes time.

Very true

I'm sure one day someone will find a path to having natural hair, side effect free for the unlucky ones who suffer from hairloss. Stem cells are looking like the key but I do think we need to get real. It's not going to happen soon and may be decades away. It's close but maybe not close enough. Just pray for a better topical than minox in the meantime.

[sdsurfin]

Don't get too excited about this study either, got an email from Dr. Xu yesterday after I asked him what he thought, and he says that the people who did the study probably misinterpreted their results, and that the resulting hair was mouse hair and not human hair. Not sure how he knows this, but he's legit.

I'm pretty sure that hair cloning is in fact decades away. We are not even close to making multiple viable follicles, and then all the testing and tweaking, and further problems that might arise, who really cares at this point, it'll be ages. I've decided to stop caring, it is what it is. If we're lucky replicel will come out with something viable for maintenance, and if not then there's not much to follow really, any topical is just an annoying bandaid that reminds you of the losing battle, might as well just forget about it.

[Deal]

It's a joke they can't work out the in's and out's of a hair follicle. It's beyond belief. I'm sure one day in kindergartens across the country when kids grow hair on their paintings everyone will look back and laugh at how simple it is. There should be no need for cloning... IT'S A HAIR FOLLICLE. I mean come on, what is so hard about it? If they can't work this out then there is no hope for anything serious.

Whoever works out how to turn on and off the human hair follicle will be the most popular human of all time considering everyone is either trying to grow or remove hair from all over their bodies. Almost everyone has some kind of hair problem somewhere.

Learn and do it yourself if it's so easy. Bitching does nothing. You are kidding yourself if you think someone who controls hair is more important than someone who cures cancer, heart disease, brain tumors, or many other LIFE threatening issues. Some on this forum need a serious reality check.

[walrus]

got an email from Dr. Xu yesterday after I asked him what he thought, and he says that the people who did the study probably misinterpreted their results, and that the resulting hair was mouse hair and not human hair. Not sure how he knows this, but he's legit. .

Very dismissive. All submissions to the journal are peer reviewed by at least two academics working in the same or a similar field plus an editor who scrutinize closely. To suggest that they 'probably misinterpreted' their results without giving scientific reasons to support such a claim is lazy and slanderous to the reputation of the authors. If anyone can find a legitimate flaw in the methodology of such a study they are welcome to submit a rebuttal and the paper can be withdrawn if necessary.

[joachim]

Don't get too excited about this study either, got an email from Dr. Xu yesterday after I asked him what he thought, and he says that the people who did the study probably misinterpreted their results, and that the resulting hair was mouse hair and not human hair. Not sure how he knows this, but he's legit.

I'm pretty sure that hair cloning is in fact decades away. We are not even close to making multiple viable follicles, and then all the testing and tweaking, and further problems that might arise, who really cares at this point, it'll be ages. I've decided to stop caring, it is what it is. If we're lucky replicel will come out with something viable for maintenance, and if not then there's not much to follow really, any topical is just an annoying bandaid that reminds you of the losing battle, might as well just forget about it.

lol. Dr. Xu can't be serious with such a comment. to misinterprete if the hairs were grown from human cells or the mouse only, this is almost impossible. they used nude mice (which completely lack hair) and if you inject human DP cells into them, the hair formed must be human. the mice are used as kind of growth medium in this case (basically just a growth environment for the cells). this is the same method like all other researchers do it as well, and many of them already confirmed in their experiments that the grown hair was human, although grafted in mice skin.

so i'm not sure what reason Dr. Xu has to tell us such funny things.
maybe he is surprised, impressed, or shocked, that they could do this iPS culturing many years ahead of him, thus it must be flawed. don't know.

[FearTheLoss]

lol. Dr. Xu can't be serious with such a comment. to misinterprete if the hairs were grown from human cells or the mouse only, this is almost impossible. they used nude mice (which completely lack hair) and if you inject human DP cells into them, the hair formed must be human. the mice are used as kind of growth medium in this case (basically just a growth environment for the cells). this is the same method like all other researchers do it as well, and many of them already confirmed in their experiments that the grown hair was human, although grafted in mice skin.

so i'm not sure what reason Dr. Xu has to tell us such funny things.
maybe he is surprised, impressed, or shocked, that they could do this iPS culturing many years ahead of him, thus it must be flawed. don't know.

This has been published in a highly respected medical journal with peer reviews. I don't think that would be possible if it were as Dr. Xu thinks it is.