Cell scientists tackle balding one hair at a time

It might not be the most important breakthrough in stem cell
research, but it could be the technology's crowning glory: cloning
hair follicles to overcome baldness. In what might become the most
effective permanent treatment for the condition, several research
teams around the world have successfully cloned human hair
follicles - though only in limited amounts. Human trials are yet to
be held, but the cloned follicles have been successfully implanted
into the soles of the feet of mice, giving hair-loss sufferers hope
that a remedy is within reach. The challenge for scientists at the
University of Melbourne and St Vincent's Hospital, and for research
teams at Berlin Technical University and British company
Intercytex, is to increase the number of follicles that can be
cloned from a single hair taken from a patient's scalp. At the
moment, one hair produces only one or two clones. ''We've got to
find a way of increasing the yield,'' said Professor Rod Sinclair,
head of the research team at St Vincent's. ''We've got to find a
way of multiplying one hair extracted into 1000 hairswhat commonly
happens in the expansion process is that they lose their ability to
induce new hair follicles.''