How Spot the mouse is helping to cure baldness

Spot the mouse lived a hairless life until nine months ago, when she suddenly gained a tuft of human hair on one side.
The underlying cause of baldness is that your body stops generating new hair cells, according to dNovo. It claims to have a technology that can reprogram existing cells into stem cells.

If a procedure like Spot's were to be used, the cells would be put onto the area you might have been covering with a hat or comb-over. Your luscious locks are back again after the graft causes hair cells to kick back into gear.

After three weeks, Spot and her fellowhair deficient mice started growing patches of human hair. The company first shared photos of Spot with the MIT Technology Review's look at high-tech baldness treatments, and we're the first to bring you her name.

The location the researchers could have chosen was not the most visually pleasing. If they don't want to go for the traditional top-of-head location, why not go for the chest? Spot could use the rest of her life to wear a gold chain.

Spot seems to be enjoying her hair with no notable adverse reactions according to dNovo founder.
It's time for a visit to the barber shop. Credit: dNovo

The company's website states that they can potentially generate your own personalized hair stem cells that are compatible with your immune system. It's not an ironclad indication of the future if the proof is on the mouse.

"This is only the first step towards our potential cure for hair loss," Lujan says when asked how long it will take. Finding a treatment for baldness is difficult.

When considering the importance of that treatment, you'd be forgiven for not noting how pharmaceutical and biotech companies jump right on solving very male problems, such as Erectile Dysfunction, while many health issues that affect women remain understudied and even taboo. Stem cell technology can cause a lot of internal strife, and not just for men, but Lujan stands by his mission of applying stem cell technology to a seemingly superficial problem.

Stem-cell research has focused on tissue engineering and regeneration. The groundwork for what we are doing now was laid by the pioneers. Almost one in two men and one in seven women are affected by hair loss at some point in their lives. We believe that our work will improve the lives of many people.

Spot brought another hair's breadth closer to its cure.