Scientists Claim Baldness Cure Breakthrough

The Telegraph reports:

A cream or ointment may soon cure baldness or stop hair turning grey, a new study suggests. The cells that makes hairs and turns it grey was accidentally discovered by US scientists as they explored how certain cancer tumors form. The breakthrough could one day identify possible treatments for balding and hair greying and also explain why we age.

Associate Professor of Dermatology Dr Lu Le at UT Southwestern Medical Centre said: “Although this project was started in an effort to understand how certain kinds of tumors form, we ended up learning why hair turns grey and discovering the identity of the cell that directly gives rise to hair.

“With this knowledge, we hope in the future to create a topical compound or to safely deliver the necessary gene to hair follicles to correct these cosmetic problems.” The study found the protein called KROX20, more commonly associated with nerve development, turned on in skin cells that become the hair shaft.