Encomium
Cosmetic firm, L’Oreal is working on the cure for baldness. The new technology raises high hopes that would put an end to human baldness. The technique involves a 3D printing of new hair follicles that are capable of developing new hair.
L’Oreal is collaborating with French bio-printing company, Poietis in order to develop the ground-breaking technology. Current tissues engineering techniques are limited in terms of cell patterns. But the two companies are optimistic they can crack the method needed to bio-print a hair follicle.
In a statement released by L’Oreal, it’s said that the method uses laser-assisted bio-printing technology to produce biological tissue and can position cells in 3D with extremely high cellular resolution.
Instead of the ink usually used, the lasers sends a stream of these cells on to a substrate that is covered in nutrients to help the cells grow.
By doing this layer by layer, scientists think they could grow something similar to a hair follicle. The tissue created is then matured for around three weeks before it can be used in tests. The hair follicle then can actually sprout hair.
According to the Director of Predictive Methods and Models department, L’Oréal Recherche & Innovation, Jose Cotovio, “This research partnership is very stimulating for the Advanced Research teams. This is the holy grail that we all have in mind – to make something to put on the head of people with hair-loss problems. Hair loss is a very emotional problem for people, and this is the final target.”
