Dr. Christiano did it again ! Dr. Angelo Christiano, the famous researcher from Columbia University who discovered the "hairless" gene earlier this year, stunned the world again with another breakthrough in the search for a cure for hair loss. Dr. Christiano worked in cooperation with Dr. Colin Jahoda, and his wife, Dr. Amanda Reynolds have successfully transplanted scalp cells from one person to another without the use of drugs. According to Dr. Christiano, it won't be long before we can use a few cells to basically regenerate an entire organ.

The experiment was led by Dr. Colin Jahoda, and his wife, Dr. Amanda Reynolds at Druham University, U.K and will be reported in November 4th issue of the journal Nature. The experiment involved removing cells at the bottom of hair follicles (dermal sheath cells) from Dr. Jahoda's own scalp and then transplanted into the forearm of his wife. In less than two months, the transplanted tissue developed into five fully grown hairs in Dr. Reynolds' arm. It was observed that the new hair was genetically male, it was distinctively longer, thicker and darker than Dr. Reynolds' own arm hair.

Up until now, most hair transplant surgeons would inform their patients that transplanting hair from one person to another will not work. Most surgeons cite reasons relating to tissue rejection. This has been devastating to most hair transplant patients who have insufficient donor hair. Once they have depleted their own supply of donor hair, they will have nothing to turn to. Now with this astounding discovery by Dr. Jahoda's research team, many foresee the possibility of creating new hair in just about anyone. Hair follicle cells could be removed from a person's own scalp or from another person's scalp and then multiplied through laboratory cloning procedures.

As of now, there are many issues that have to be resolved before the procedure will be made available to the public. For example, will the new hairs grow permanently, will they grow at the right angle, possibility of tissue rejection in the future, side effects and complications etc. The procedure used in the experiment was far too complex to duplicate for mass market at this point.

Despite all these good news, Dr. Jahoda predicts that it may take up to 15 years before doctors can safely and successfully grow hair by means of hair cloning on anyone.