stem cell news (not directly hair-related)

[Tricia]

This is encouraging, even though it's not directly hair-related. One of the stumbling blocks with stem cells was that animal cells were needed to create a framework for human stem cells. I don't know if this applied to adult stem cells or strictly the embryonic ones. But, I guess they've found a way to culture stem cells without any animals cells. Hooray!!!

Advanced Cell Technology Sees Better Way To Create Embryonic Stem Cells

A team at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, looking for ways to make safer stem cells for use in medical therapies, say they have grown human cells without the use of contaminating animal cells. Dr Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, whose company conducted the study along with them says the science now exists to produce new lines that will be safe. The work, conducted outside US federal restraints, could bypass problems of contamination by animal products with existing stem cell batches, which renders the cells unsuitable for use in people. The new lines produced will be much safer, said Lanza.