Cloning Hair: Good News for the Balding

The Place: the renowned IST Tumor Research Institute in Genova, Italy.

The Event: the birth of a human hair -- in vitro.

The Result: Cloned hair. Grown, nurtured and collected. And ready to be transplanted onto the balding head of a willing patient.

Two plastic surgeons who conduct research at the institute -- Pierluigi Santi and his colleague Edoardo Rapposio have certified and should be ready to patent their findings of what is now known as Iso-9001 in about four months. For all intents and purposes -- cloned hair. But the end result of their discovery isn't what they had in mind at the outset.

Santi is no stranger in the field of reconstructive and plastic surgery. Heralded in Europe and in the US for his work in scalp reconstruction, this "hair-multiplication" breakthrough is a logical extension of the research Santi does at the Institute.

Commented Santi - who is the Director of Reconstructive Surgery at IST, "...The crucial part lies in the "bulb" or root of the hair follicle. Each root can be divided in two...which in turn can regenerate into a new hair...which in turn can be subdivided again. In this way with one hair can be subdivided into many and a transplant can later occur that doesn't rely on multiple hairs being taken off the scalp and re-distributed..."

According to an article in the Italian newspaper "La Corriere Della Sera" -- from one hair -- 15 new ones can be reproduced in about 12 days. The next step is transplanting those hairs one by one, and then allowing those hairs to grow at their normal rate. Santi and Rapposio have taken their research one step farther. The cloned follicles can be used in eye brows or a beard or anywhere on the body where hair is found. That's good news to more patients than those just looking for a full head of hair. Individuals who have lost hair due to traumatic accidents - burn victims for example -- Could benefit from this follicle breakthrough.

Santi figures that with only 10 hairs acquired from one patient, the cloning process will generate enough follicles to make a full head of hair.