stem cell news: iPS cells reverted to pristine state

[joachim]

Google tells me this Dr. Xu is affiliated with UPenn? It looks like he is already working on hair related research so would he need funding to continue? If we were to crowdfund, I know I would give a lot more if was something like this that I know is legit.

sdsurfin is in contact with Dr. Xu and they also talked about the possibility for crowdfunding already. Upenn will be considering to accept crowdfunding, according to Xu but sdsurfin is still waiting on a final decision, or at least some further infos from Xu.

but yes, Xu is already working on the hairloss topic through the iPS cell route. he already achieved to create epithelial cells which are one of the important cells needed for new follicles. he was the first who achieved this.
the next step is, to also create the other cell types like DP or DSC. maybe not both of them are required, because it is said, that both DP and DSC alone can induce a new hair follicle. however, researchers found out that building cell clusters with those different cells produce better engineered follicles. so they also e.g. coat the DP cells with epithelial cells. so, it's good to have at least epithelial and DP cells. if you even have DSC cells to throw in, then the follicle gets even more perfect.

so, if we have unlimited supply to those cells types then the cure is not far anymore. all actual developments concentrate on perfectly culturing those cell types in petri dishes and bioreactors, but the cultured cells lose their genetic properties when multiplied in millions. thus, the other route via iPS cells solves that problem and eliminates the need for tricky culturing methods. it gives you perfect cells, as many as you want, because before transforming iPS cells into the differentiated cell types, they can be easily multiplied in dishes, millions of them, without losing genetic properties.

[2young2bald]

sdsurfin is in contact with Dr. Xu and they also talked about the possibility for crowdfunding already. Upenn will be considering to accept crowdfunding, according to Xu but sdsurfin is still waiting on a final decision, or at least some further infos from Xu.

but yes, Xu is already working on the hairloss topic through the iPS cell route. he already achieved to create epithelial cells which are one of the important cells needed for new follicles. he was the first who achieved this.
the next step is, to also create the other cell types like DP or DSC. maybe not both of them are required, because it is said, that both DP and DSC alone can induce a new hair follicle. however, researchers found out that building cell clusters with those different cells produce better engineered follicles. so they also e.g. coat the DP cells with epithelial cells. so, it's good to have at least epithelial and DP cells. if you even have DSC cells to throw in, then the follicle gets even more perfect.

so, if we have unlimited supply to those cells types then the cure is not far anymore. all actual developments concentrate on perfectly culturing those cell types in petri dishes and bioreactors, but the cultured cells lose their genetic properties when multiplied in millions. thus, the other route via iPS cells solves that problem and eliminates the need for tricky culturing methods. it gives you perfect cells, as many as you want, because before transforming iPS cells into the differentiated cell types, they can be easily multiplied in dishes, millions of them, without losing genetic properties.

And that means that you don't have limited donor hair anymore and that you can get all your hair back with a hair transplant. O my if that happens they are going to make it pricey...

[Justinian]

sdsurfin is in contact with Dr. Xu and they also talked about the possibility for crowdfunding already. Upenn will be considering to accept crowdfunding, according to Xu but sdsurfin is still waiting on a final decision, or at least some further infos from Xu.

but yes, Xu is already working on the hairloss topic through the iPS cell route. he already achieved to create epithelial cells which are one of the important cells needed for new follicles. he was the first who achieved this.
the next step is, to also create the other cell types like DP or DSC. maybe not both of them are required, because it is said, that both DP and DSC alone can induce a new hair follicle. however, researchers found out that building cell clusters with those different cells produce better engineered follicles. so they also e.g. coat the DP cells with epithelial cells. so, it's good to have at least epithelial and DP cells. if you even have DSC cells to throw in, then the follicle gets even more perfect.

so, if we have unlimited supply to those cells types then the cure is not far anymore. all actual developments concentrate on perfectly culturing those cell types in petri dishes and bioreactors, but the cultured cells lose their genetic properties when multiplied in millions. thus, the other route via iPS cells solves that problem and eliminates the need for tricky culturing methods. it gives you perfect cells, as many as you want, because before transforming iPS cells into the differentiated cell types, they can be easily multiplied in dishes, millions of them, without losing genetic properties.

Thanks for the summary.

So if they can figure out how to clone the other 1-2 types, then it will be straightforward to transplant them into the scalp? I assume there would be several years of clinical trials from that point, after preclinical studies also.

[joachim]

Thanks for the summary.

So if they can figure out how to clone the other 1-2 types, then it will be straightforward to transplant them into the scalp? I assume there would be several years of clinical trials from that point, after preclinical studies also.

i wouldn't say straightforward, but it's definitely doable. researchers already showed that it's possible to induce new hairs from DP cell spheroids. but they did it with freshly extracted (unmodified) cells. the problem up to now was (and still is) the multiplication of those cells because they lose their genetic characteristics.

yes, some safety clinical trials of course. but with the new laws in japan we are not talking about the always mentioned 10 years. it can be done much faster, if someone of the researchers has the courage and will to do it. i personally hope that europe will consider implementing a similar law structure like japan somewhen, to conditionally release treatments earlier than usual. but i don't have any hope for the US states. the FDA will never change their laws.

[brocktherock]

Des also said that everything they presented at the congress was at least 18 months old. I doubt we are getting the news as this comes out and Im sure we aren't the only ones checking google every 5 min. There are a lot of competing players involved now and it would be foolish to d*ck dance around with trials if you had a solid solution. Maybe that's why topical fin histogen and follica are dragging, maybe it's like making better audio cassette tapes when cd's are close to being announced, it just wouldn't be smart business. And believe me if this much money is on the line the trials won't be five years. Money has it's way of speeding things along and at this stage we aren't just looking at treatments and transplants there are people going for the cure.

[nameless]

Hellouser, if scientists used the iPS method to create DP cells wouldn't there still be the problem that those DP cells would not have the genetic expression to create hairs?

I don't think that merely getting DP cells solves the hair loss problem. I think that those DP cells have to express genes to create hair loss and I don't think that DP cells created from iPS stem cells would have the correct genetic expression.

[nameless]

Researchers cracked a major hurlde in the iPS (cells reverted back to stem cells) area. Until now, the resulting iPS cells were still slightly genetically different from their Embryonic counterparts. The Europeans have not solved that and can now create pristine state stem cells from for example skin cells: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0911125047.htm

It seems to me that aside from Dr. Xu, it would also be interesting to get this information into the hands of Replicel.