new method for stem cell differentiation

[Arashi]

There's no way in hell I'm suggesting to Dr. Xu that he should go on this forum. most of the questions on here are borderline braindead, and people keep asking the same stuff over and over seemingly without reading (or maybe understanding) what dr. gardner said. I'm not surprised he hasn't been on here in a while.

Man, tell me about it. People like JarJar posting 3-4 questions in a row, most of them either even not interesting or asked before. I warned about that: http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showpos...6&postcount=37 but he just kept doing it. It wasn't him alone though, some others even posted way dumber questions. But yeah I can totally understand why dr Gardner left. On the other hand, we got all the info we needed, thanks to interesting questions from people like you, Joachim, JJJJR's etc, so it's been a great run.

[sdsurfin]

Man, tell me about it. People like JarJar posting 3-4 questions in a row, most of them either even not interesting or asked before. I warned about that: http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showpos...6&postcount=37 but he just kept doing it. It wasn't him alone though, some others even posted way dumber questions. But yeah I can totally understand why dr Gardner left. On the other hand, we got all the info we needed, thanks to interesting questions from people like you, Joachim, JJJJR's etc, so it's been a great run.

whoever "nameless" is needs to take a break for sure. boring me to death with redundancy and absolute lack of comprehension for anything that has been said. baldness is the least of so many of these peoples' worries.

[joachim]

There's no way in hell I'm suggesting to Dr. Xu that he should go on this forum. most of the questions on here are borderline braindead, and people keep asking the same stuff over and over seemingly without reading (or maybe understanding) what dr. gardner said. I'm not surprised he hasn't been on here in a while. As far as what Xu is doing, I think it will be more effective that trying to expand DP cells in culture and then re-instating their gene expression. O bviously he thinks the same, but we could both be wrong.

I think crowdfunding just about anyone would be a doable and useful thing for this forum to do. I just read an article that said that 1 out of 5 people in britain said they would want to see a baldness cure if they could choose one thing for future experimentation to bring (out of any possible future device, tech, etc)!!! a ton of people want this to happen, which is why it's absolute bollocks when someone on here say that society is trying to keep a cure away, researchers dont want it etc etc. Humans are vain and people hate losing their hair, it's just a very hard thing to fix. lots of things involved as we've seen.

I'm keeping Dr. Xu posted with those videos, and I'm sure he's aware of all the stem cell news and techniques coming to fruition. I saw an article yesterday about how they figured out how to make liver cells turn back into stem cells (the liver is a very regenerative organ). I will ask Dr. Gardner and dr xu whether they read this and if they think it has any correlation. These guys are pros though, we're not gonna blow their minds with our knowledge, the best we can do is try to raise money and support. I don't spend a ton of time on here cause i have a life to live, but there are some guys on here who, if they spent a fraction of the time that they spend on here instead setting up a charity for hair loss or fundraising effort etc, would accomplish so much. Dr. Gardner outlined some very useful ways to garner support and money.

I'm still waiting on Xu to hear back about crowdfunding from his university. I honestly think that the germans and the japanese are the most advanced, with perhaps dr gardner and dr xu in second. it doesnt seem like the germans or japanese are lacking funding. I think getting money to one of the american or british university teams would be hugely useful. depending on the amount raised, it could be split between the two. Crowdfunding a project like follica is stupid. that is a company that is in charge of securing their own funding, and if they cant do it, it means there's a good reason. you dont throw more money behind bad money. basic business. the goal is to get people enthused about the road to a real and permanent cure, which right now seems to be very realistically taking shape in the form of lab grown follicles.

ok, so we agree that Dr. Xu has a good approach. i think it would be easy to crowdfund him, even if it takes half a year or so...

but there are currently 2 crucial questions here to which we should have an answer (i hope you can forward that to Dr. Xu):

1. is he absolutely sure that if he is able to create DP cells from iPS, that those DP cells then have 100% gene expression and their inductive potential like freshly isolated cells? i guess, the DP cells still will have to be assembled into simple 3D spheroids to create an inductive structure, but we're talking about simple structures here, without coating tricks and whatelse. but is Dr. Xu REALLY sure that the gene expression is 100% then?

2. is there a legal method today to create iPS cells or will this be a showstopper unless someone figures out how to get iPS cells? is gene editing allowed? (it's done in vitro, so maybe the legal issues are more relaxed then, no?)
Dr. Xu should please give us a short overview on this. pricing shouldn't be relevant in the first place. we just need to know if feasibility is there.

if we have positive answers to those 2 questions, then nothing should stop us anymore to crowdfund this approach. beside replicel i actually have the most faith in this approach.
and like you said, the other teams seem to have enough funding already, so they will do their job anyway. and Cots is out of the game. once this nightmare puzzle is solved by other teams then Dr. Cots's work will be rendered useless anyway.

[sdsurfin]

ok, so we agree that Dr. Xu has a good approach. i think it would be easy to crowdfund him, even if it takes half a year or so...

but there are currently 2 crucial questions here to which we should have an answer (i hope you can forward that to Dr. Xu):

1. is he absolutely sure that if he is able to create DP cells from iPS, that those DP cells then have 100% gene expression and their inductive potential like freshly isolated cells? i guess, the DP cells still will have to be assembled into simple 3D spheroids to create an inductive structure, but we're talking about simple structures here, without coating tricks and whatelse. but is Dr. Xu REALLY sure that the gene expression is 100% then?

2. is there a legal method today to create iPS cells or will this be a showstopper unless someone figures out how to get iPS cells? is gene editing allowed? (it's done in vitro, so maybe the legal issues are more relaxed then, no?)
Dr. Xu should please give us a short overview on this. pricing shouldn't be relevant in the first place. we just need to know if feasibility is there.

if we have positive answers to those 2 questions, then nothing should stop us anymore to crowdfund this approach. beside replicel i actually have the most faith in this approach.
and like you said, the other teams seem to have enough funding already, so they will do their job anyway. and Cots is out of the game. once this nightmare puzzle is solved by other teams then Dr. Cots's work will be rendered useless anyway.

I can answer those for you.

1) No, no one is sure about anything. No one has ever created DP cells from stem cells, so no one knows how they will act or if they will be the same as freshly isolated cells. Because they are not freshly isolated cells, they will probably not be the same. However, if it works this could be a good way to make the many many DP cells that are needed to make new follicles. they will probably still need to be coaxed into constructs, and I think no matter how we get DP cells that work, that they will have to be part of a larger organ germ that includes epithelial and possible fat cells. Xu has made hair inducing epithelial cells already, and with funding can probably make DP cells. Once able to do this, the other teams could add that as an option, and will hopefully be far enough knowing how to put all the parts together. No one knows if multiplying DP cells fast in culture and then restoring them will ever work. No one knows if creating DP cells from scratch will create DP cells that work properly either. But both approaches should be tried. In any case, the goal is to find the BEST, the EASIEST, and the CHEAPEST way to do things, and no one knows what that is yet.

2) Xu is already making Epithelial cells from IPS cells, so I assume this is not an issue. He is in the USA and is making EP cells from IPS cells, so I assume it's legal and they have that covered. Also, every day they are figuring out new ways to make stem cells, the other day they figured out how to make stem cells from liver cells (reverting them). With enough money, i'm confident (and xu sounds like he is too) that a whole follicle can be created in a lab. Whether that happens in a decade or sooner or later depends on money and staff. right now people like Xu and gardner and Cots dont have enough money to make this happen quickly, and they have all stated such.

[walrus]

Cots is out of the game. once this nightmare puzzle is solved by other teams then Dr. Cots's work will be rendered useless anyway.

Hardly. A low cost topical to stop you losing your hair in the first place (i.e. a PGD2 blocker) will always have its place. To call an academics work 'useless' is also short sighted. It could have implications in other areas outside of MPB.