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Gene Research Gives Hope of Reversing Baldness
Hair loss in humans might not be irreversible, suggest scientists who have helped create new hair cells on the skin of mice. It was thought hair follicles, once damaged, could never be replaced. A University of Pennsylvania team, writing in the journal Nature, say hair growth can actually be encouraged using a single gene.
i'm not nearly as distressed by the hair i'm losing as much as by the hair that seems to grow more and more rapidly where i don't want it.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Getting rid of excess hair is easy and relatively cheap. A girlfriend and I had planned on getting it done - her for her legs and me for my back. Adding hair back to the crown of my head (getting close to the point I'm going to have the chop off the several feet of hair I have to avoid having the "loser living in his mom's basement" skull-crown look) is significantly more painful and costly. The only real treatments long-term now involve grafts or artificial implants.
Advanced hair ... yeah, yeah.
Exciting for some....
However, the next generation of this process could feasibly be new limbs or new organs ... sign me up.
There's still hope for me! \o/
... keep shaving my head to finish what I thought Nature started? You mean I might have the full head of hair I never had? Huzzah! I eagerly look forward to squandering money on hair tonic and barbers!
reverses baldness, so what is the big deal?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Damn there goes the one good reason for not having the baldness gene. I won't be able to spin around the nursing home in my supped up wheelchair laughing and pointing and those inferior baldies! "Ha Ha" - Nelson
That means I will also be on equal footing when it comes to attract those cute blue rinses.
Stupid research give me back my advantages!!
No thanks, that's what makes me a sex machine!
Task Mangler
to baldly go where no man has gone before!
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
If people were just as kind and fair to the beautiful as to the ugly, then I might agree with you.
But they are not.
> Genetic research should focus on topics with higher priority for the mankind.
Are you sure this doesn't help? Let's have an example. If we have unkown variables x,y and z and we know that their values are 3,5 and 7, but we don't know which variable has which value. Now, let's assume that we are interesting finding out what is the value for x.
Now, during some unrelated reseach we find out that z = 5. So because of this, we now have less options for the x, which just increased out changes finding out what the x is.
It is the same for the genes, every little peace of information we can gather, will help solving the rest of the remaining mysteries.
Eastern European Women never lose hair anywhere, you insensitive clod!
Has some latest research links.
a rch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldness#Latest_rese
They found some genes from Russians. Now they need to work on the drugs. Said something about enzymes being key.
For guys, having money makes up for everything else :)
And, anecdotally, having money doesn't seem well-correlated with handsomeness.
Am I the only one that doesn't have a problem about going bald? Or having some deep complex about body hair in general?
It's not hair or lack of it that makes people look good or bad. You tend to lose it during your early middle age, and frankly it's not the hair situation which makes you look over the hill. If you're like most Western guys it's things like your hanging belly, heavy jowls and plushy, coarse, unkempt complexion that makes you look old and pathetic, not the follicle density of your skull top. You could have a mane big enough to play in a hair band and you'd still look old and pathetic.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
It reads like going bald is a bad thing. It's normal, it's natural. Ditto going grey, getting wrinkles and whatever else age brings. Why are we so obsessed with looking like a lie? It's not healthy.
And no, I'm not bald (yet) but going that way but there's no way I'm fighting it. Heck, it even has plus points - makes washing your hair and worrying about what style to keep it in a whole lot simpler - just razz it all off with a grade 2 every couple of weeks.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
at least scanning the article is probably a good idea before getting snippy
Clearly medical research as a whole is irrelevant until we solve world hunger; spaceships, cars, and the internet are even more irrelevant. Progress is progress, how do you know that their research into this gene won't help cancer down the road?
If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
So we got viagra to keep people up and we'll soon have $name_to_add_to_spamfilter to cure the loss of hair, but still no reliable cure for cancer and let's not talk about AIDS.
But why?
Money, people. Simply and plainly, money.
Imagine you found a cure for AIDS. A cure. Not some half-assed treatment like we do now (though, treating something is more profitable than curing... but I ramble). What would immediately happen? The WHO would start jumping to your neck and throttle you 'til you let that (presumably) ass expensive cure out for "free", because the area most affected by AIDS is also the one with the least dough to pay for it. DARE to not give that cure away for free there and you'll be picketed for the rest of your existance, which could be rather short.
Would you invest in a cure for AIDS? I won't, if I was Sandoz or Roche.
A cure for baldness on the other hand, you can sell for whatever insane sum you want. It's not like people need hair to survive, it's not life threatening to shine like Kojak. But people WANT hair. And a lot of them would pay any price to get their "good looks" back.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
right, because women's preoccupation with their appearence is less so?
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
The Tom Jones gene by any chance?
Insightful? My hiney!
Aren't scientists allowed to work on projects of lesser importance until all important problems are solved? If not, the ultimate consequence would be that we compile a list of all problems, sort them and don't start working on number 2 until we've solved number 1.
Secondly it is not as if nothing has been accomplished in cancer research. In the begining of the 20th century having cancer meant a certain death, these days you have a chance depending on the kind of cancer and how far it has progessed. Let's face it, cancer is hard to cure.
An finally you (and others in this thread) seem to think that baldness and erectily dysfunctions are minor problems. Having a problem like that can have a severe inpact on your chances of reproducing so I'd say they're no minor issues.
i've traveled europe, and your wrong unless your thing is haggard chain smokers who wear too much makeup and have hairy pits and boxes.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Yeah, because the world would be a better place if all resources were used for one single research topic. Diversity never did humanity any good.
You're absolutely right. No one is doing anything to research cancer. If only we had some sort of global awareness day, and some kind of research movement dedicated to it.. Hmm..
Seriously, crawl back into your hole. Cancer is one of, if not the most funded research topic in any field. It's serious, but that doesn't mean that all other research should be dropped in favour of it. It takes a serious idiot to believe that, and an even bigger one to attempt to justify it.
Funny thing though. In this week's Nature there is this article where American scientists speculate on an alternative method to promote de novo follicle growth [in mice] via... grazing of the scalp.
I quote the scoop from the New Scientist's entry:
Could a graze on the head help cure baldness? Biologists had thought that once mammals lose their hair follicles, they are gone forever. Now George Cotsarelis at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his colleagues have shown that adult mice can regenerate follicles when their skin is wounded.
The team cut out a square centimetre of skin from the backs of mice two weeks after their hair follicles had formed. After 14 to 19 days the wounds had closed and formed new. When the researchers added Wnt proteins - signalling molecules usually involved in embryonic development - the number of follicles doubled and the skin healed with less scarring. This suggests that wound healing may trigger an embryonic state in skin, says Cotsarelis. Surprisingly, the new follicles originate from stem cells that are not usually involved in creating hair follicles.
Cotsarelis hopes the findings could lead to new therapies for baldness. "The idea would be to disrupt the skin to trigger the embryonic pathways, and then come in with the Wnt proteins," he says.
"Sum Ergo Cogito"
They're hot when they're young, but time wounds all heels -- they don't look so great when they weigh 200#.
$META_SIG_JOKE
Anyone wondering if corperate interests drive research, I give you this. Nothing on cancer, nothing on aids, or any other serious issue. No baldness is what we really need to work on. After all what good is that viagra, if your not getting laid. This not my sci-fi vision of genetic engineering. If they're not going to help, the least they could do is give me my 2-headed bobcat with laser eyes.
I'm still 0 out of 100 somethin' and counting.
"Get off the cross - we need the wood" - Tori Amos
I wonder what Nike would pay me to grow a nice thick swish on my back for summer.
Today's bald joke: The best thing about being bald is... when her folks come home, all you have to do is straighten your tie.
My Blog | Badsh
Getting some is getting some isn't it?
Me failed English...
FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
How those in the IT industry tend to lose more hair earlier than those who don't? I look at the people who work outdoors all day and generally they have healthy heads of hair (I'm not just talking Hispanics here, who are genetically less likely to experience hair loss). But those who sit in front of monitors all day seem to say byebye to their follicles quite early.
Makes you wonder what other ailments techies will find themselves with down the road (along with that tumor by their preferred ear for holding your cell phone up to).
At least techies generally make enough $ to afford what will undoubtedly be this overpriced treatment, should it ever emerge (a friend of a friend was on the team that developed Propecia, you should see the houses and cars he has...).
What exactly is supposed to be "higher priority for the mankind?" Perhaps something that oh say...mankind desires?
How about this: If somebody spends years learning how to manipulate genetic material, and spends all of that money and time to obtain the lab equipment for doing so, shouldn't they be allowed to research whatever the hell they want to research?
That is like saying that no programmer should ever write any games, they should only write software like folding at home. We aren't communists here, we do whatever we want to do and not what somebody else thinks we should do. If nobody is allowed to pursue their true interests, then they'll eventually lose interest completely, which is where communism ultimately fails.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
These "cures" are all driven by the desires of wealthy westerners. Cure for malaria? AIDs? Flu? finding a way of pushing Big Pharma into researching a quicker method of producing flu vaccine would be a start. Big Pharma has made huge profits. It's time they put a little back.
Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
And if they smell bad it's a plus.
But it have to be ordered by the pizza delivery guy.
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
It's more women's preoccupation with each other's appearance that is the problem.
In fact, it's women's preoccupation with male appearance that makes men worry about baldness.
It's not like men give a shit what other men look like.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Oh I'm dreadfully sorry your mighty intellect is bored by the trivial concerns of millions. Fact is, many men are enormously bothered by going bald. It's something that affects their job prospects, their sex lives and much more. There are many, many more important things in the world of course, but then we have people like you to wrestle with infinitely more worthy thoughts.
In fact, next time you need to point out to us just how trivial our concerns are, do me a favour. Don't indulge us.
Am I the only one who first read this as "Google Research Gives Hope of Reversing Baldness"? :)
i've traveled europe,
Want to detail where in Eastern Europe you've been? Bulgaria? Romania? Estonia?
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
I was expecting many more funny comments in this post.. Especially since it deals with baldness (a very good topic for jokes)
How about...
"We're all born with the same amount of hormones. If you want to use yours for growing hair, that's your business."
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Both pathways are cancer-related and the first one is fairly complex, so there will be (hopefully) a lot of (lengthy) research intended to find out possible side effects.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill: I may be bald, but you're an idiot, and now I can regrow my hair.....
This is a clear path to make a lot of money to fund other research. And possibly the easiest path to pursue in this line, as far as safety and testing go. It's a stepping stone.
How does other gene therapy work? Visuses. They add stuff to our genetic code and kill off a few cells to spread themselves around.
It'd be the same here.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
I just heard one of the researchers being interviewed on BBC Radio 2. He said they weren't looking for this, it's a side-effect dicovered during their research into the way skin heals. I think healing lacerations is a fairly worthy goal.
...like this.
Feeding everyone in the world is probably a bad idea. We would first need to control population growth. The internet and robotic space exploration are nice consolation prizes.
As always there's the issue of correlation vs causality. But note that "more attractive women earned more later on in their jobs." In other words, their beauty predicted their later raises! But even if wealthier people simply find it worthwhile to spend money making themselves look good, don't you think there's probably a reason?
Right, because only wealthy westerners have ever put any effort into a cure for baldness or "male enhancement" products.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
It would seem that you are
Unless you are currently involved in such research, you are just a hypocritical fuck.
Seen Mike Judge's "Idiocracy"? "Some had high hopes that genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution. But sadly, the greatest minds and resources were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections." Cue in a picture of an orangutan with generous hair and a visible bulge in his pants...
For all the crap women get for our cosmetics and stuff, Y-chromies seem to be just as vain.
"I'm not good. I'm not nice. I'm just right."
In the case of the latter group, it makes better business sense not to eliminate them. With cancer, AIDS, MS, et. al., it is more profitable to treat the symptoms.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Instead of focusing so much on baldness and erectile dysfunction, shouldn't we have our scientists dealing with the decreasing IQ problem? Just think of where we could end up 500 years!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Also, doesn't hair help protect again cancer to some extent? A bald head may be getting a bit more in the way of UV rays and sunburn than a fully haired one.
If they can figure out how to stop hair from growing on one's back, ears, and nose, that will be where the smart money goes...
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Ok, well, if that's the only way, I guess having short, white, mouse hair instead of my natural hair will have to do. :-D translated : (^_^)
This finally has convinced me that there should be no more obstacles to genetic research!
You can fill my garden with modified man eating plants, you can kill my neighbours with terrible designer diseases, I don't care as long as you can give me back my hair!
This should be the only +6 post here, seriously.
/. over a year ago and it hadn't even occured to me till then.
I recall seeing a similar post on
It's amazing when you actually think about it and realise it really is quite true, the ugly are very frequently discriminated against and as a bonus zing, there's no 'anti-ugly' discrimination because it's normally more subtle things, like quality of service from people, respect in the workplace, that kind of thing
It has been 45 years since the first successful salvo, aiding women in the fight against small breast antipathy, was fired - thank you Cronin and Gerow! 16 years since coke-bottle spectacles could be removed allowing Slashdot readers to look less-nerdy.
What of the poor, demasculinized baldies?
In the past fifty years they've been given tonics, wigs, a classy British actor, plugs, and transplantations. None of which truly offer salvation to the downtrodden. Why are women and those with poor vision helped with silicon stress-balls and glorified laser pens - both of which are fun to play with - while those with male pattern baldness are stuck with Miracle-Gro and doll's hair? If it takes our best scientific minds to right this injustice, so be it!
I didn't want to leave this blank.
Fortunately, as Mitch Fatel observed, "... most of us are pleasant-looking. There aren't really very many ugly people. You know a person is ugly when you see them, and you want to hit them. 'Why did you come out?!'".
Also, that's the first time I've ever ended a sentence with five punctuation marks. And my placement of the period is the only really questionable one.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Well, with proper lifestyle and diet, you can pretty much avoid most cancers, but, there's nothing you can do naturally to prevent hair loss.
With more hair, you look younger, and makes it easier to 'bag' younger chicks...they DO respond differently to men with vs without hair.
No one lives forever, but, I'd rather have hair for the life I do have...it makes me feel better, and helps you to get laid more (when other things are considered like money, physical fitness).
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I never really thought about taking sandpaper or a wood file to my head before this but having read the article it should be nicer than the turtlewax thing.
Since I joined Hair Club for Mice, I'm not worried about my looks and females rush to my side. And our IT guy with the mullet is jealous, too.
We could cut cancer rates dramatically if we just cut off life span to what it was in the 1500's.
At first I read that as "Badness".. and it kinda freaks me out that I was not surprised at all :/
I always found it somewhat disheartening that, in the futuristic era of Star Trek, we'll apparently be able to travel faster than light (warp engines), consider gravity itself to be little more than a house-hold utility (which miraculously stays on even when ship has been destroyed for decades), synthesize food in seconds in our bedrooms, create artificial reality so real it needs safety settings (and doesn't even need some poor bastard to mop up after VR's involving super-models), create lasers that not only blow up ships, but can actually be heard (Vzzzom!) in the vaccum of space, cure anything with a hypospray, etc, etc, etc...
but Warf and Pickard are both still as bald as plucked chickens.
A more realistic techno-topia would probably involve everyone walking around looking like movie-stars (with comically large sex organs for the guys), and 15 year waiting list for the holodeck. Plus, I'm pretty sure that there'd be *at least* one Mexican somewhere.
Well, MBAs may not be representative of the whole population of well-to-do people. Beauty may be causative for them, but not others.
I imagine it's a matter of degree, depending on how rationalistic the culture is in a given field. I prefer rationalism.
Chances are your job isn't remotely related to medical research. Maybe you should actually go out and research anything before you attack people who are actually researching something.
The commonest form of cancer is skin cancer, generally caused by excessive exposure to the sun. Guess what hair blocks? This is cancer prevention.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Hair protects your skin from the sun and helps keep you warm. A bald person, to stay warm, must either raise the thermostat or wear a hat indoors. If you believe the claptrap that humans are causing global warming by burning fuel, then curing baldness fights global warming.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
You apply a substance that increases expression of the repair gene, and do something to make your cells think they need to do repair work. The latter might be something as simple as a chemical irritant like pepper extract.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
I for one welcome our newly hairy overlords!
I am not an animal! I am something worse!
a) I was specifically referring to male pattern baldness. Read more carefully.
b) If a person has low self-esteem because of a natural process, the self-esteem is the problem, not the hair.
Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
...where all the 14-year-old girls try to look 25.
This is some great news. I knew this was coming. I have been telling people to wait for this, but they all thought I was crazy. Nope, not crazy, just a little a head in my prediction. I love Biotech. It is GREAT! I am not bald yet, but it is heading that way. I hope they hurry this up and have it paid for by my insurance. Hell, if they pay for Viagra for oldsters, then they can pay for Gene Therapy for guys like me.
I though it was in Estonia where things got hairy recently...