Gizmorama - February 2, 2015

Good Morning,

Could stem cells be the answer to making baldness a thing of the past? Hold onto your hats, the answer may surprise you!

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Can hair-growing stem cells cure baldness? --*
LA JOLLA, Calif. (UPI) - A new technique for growing human hair in a petri dish may hold promise for balding men and women all over the world. Scientists have managed to grow new hair from human pluripotent stem cells -- cells capable of morphing into all sorts of different cells.

In this instance, the stem cells -- taken from human embryos -- are coaxed into mimicking dermal papillae, the type of cells that govern hair follicle formation and growth cycles. Dermal papillae can be grown in the lab from adult cells, as well, but they quickly lose their potency. Dermal papillae developed from stem cells do not.

"We have developed a method using human pluripotent stem cells to create new cells capable of initiating human hair growth," explained Alexey Terskikh, an associate professor in the Development, Aging, and Regeneration Program at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

"The method is a marked improvement over current methods that rely on transplanting existing hair follicles from one part of the head to another," Terskikh added. "Our stem cell method provides an unlimited source of cells from the patient for transplantation and isn't limited by the availability of existing hair follicles."

In studies with mice, transplanted stem-turned-dermal papillae cells were able to grow significant amounts of hair.

The authors of the study -- which was published in the journal PLOS ONE -- are now looking for partners to help take the science to market.

The only problem is that the newly generated stem cell hair grows in a haphazard pattern, each hair shooting in out in different directions and at different angles.

"So it might be a little messy," Terskikh told U-T San Diego. "But I figure that people will prefer messy hair over a lack of it."


*-- Colorado scientists pitch concept for telescope better than Hubble --*
BOULDER, Colo. (UPI) - In the world of telescopes, it doesn't get much better than Hubble's resolution. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with some of the most detailed images of distant space ever captured.

But there's always room for improvement. And scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder say they've got a strategy for honing in ever more precisely on the distant corners of the cosmos. The concept, researchers say, could provide scientists with images up to 1,000 times sharper.

It's not necessarily the massive amplification is picture quality that's impressive, but the strategy for getting there -- foregoing a single telescope satellite for a two-piece system. The concept, called Aragoscope, would feature a massive disc (up to a half-mile in diameter) floating out in front of a more traditional telescope setup.

"Traditionally, space telescopes have essentially been monolithic pieces of glass like the Hubble Space Telescope," explained Anthony Harness, a doctoral student in Colorado's Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences.

"But the heavier the space telescope, the more expensive the cost of the launch," Harness added. "We have found a way to solve that problem by putting large, lightweight optics into space that offer a much higher resolution and lower cost."

The giant disc would be made of a hard, durable plastic that could be launched in a compressed form and unfurled like a parachute once in space. The disc would be tethered to the telescope and spread out anywhere from ten to a few hundred miles beyond the base of the satellite.

The disc would operate by refracting light and bending it around its corners to a central point where it could be concentrated on the telescope and converted into high-res imagery. The bigger the lens the better the image.

"The opaque disk of the Aragoscope works in a similar way to a basic lens," said Harness.

When pointed towards the the other reaches of the galaxy, researchers predict that it would highlight the mysteries of black holes and binary star systems. If its gaze was fixed on Earth, it would be powerful enough to spot a rabbit running across a field and could potentially help park rangers locate lost hikers.

The concept -- named for French scientist Francois Arago -- is being developed by Harness and CU-Boulder Professor Webster Cash. It is one of 12 proposals that was chosen for research funding as part of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) contest. In April, officials at NASA will choose six of the proposals for additional funding.

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