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Scientists from Yale University have discovered a few month ago the source of signals that trigger hair growth, an insight that may lead to fight baldness. The researchers identified stem cells within the skin's fatty layer and showed that molecular signals from these cells were necessary to spur hair growth in mice. "If we can get these fat cells in the skin to talk to the dormant stem cells at the base of hair follicles, we might be able to get hair to grow again," said Valerie Horsley , assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University.

Yale researchers now  captured these images of hair follicles of a mouse, with nuclei of epithelial cells stained in green and mesenchymal cells, which are active in early development, in red. Yale scientists found that mesenchymal cells were crucial to hair growth. 

Source: http://news.yale.edu/2011/09/01/yale-scientists-find-stem-cells-tell-hair-its-time-grow

Researchers have established a novel gene therapy strategy which is an excellent substitute for the current expensive and uncontrollable Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene delivery system. The discovery of the hyperbranched poly(amidoamine) (hPAMAM) nanoparticle based hypoxia regulated vascular endothelial growth factor (HRE-VEGF) gene therapy strategy, by Dr Changfa Guo, Professor Chunsheng Wang and their co-investigators from Zhongshan hospital Fudan University, Shanghai, China, provides an economical, feasible and biocompatible gene therapy strategy for cardiac repair.

Transplantation of VEGF gene manipulated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been proposed as a promising therapeutic method for cardiac repair after myocardium infarction. However, the gene delivery system, including the VEGF gene and delivery vehicle, needs to be optimized. 

Zhongshan hospital Fudan University, Shanghai:
  http://www.zs-hospital.sh.cn/e/intro/index.htm

Source: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228062762_Novel_vascular
_endothelial_growth_factor_gene_delivery_system-anipulated_mesenchymal_stem_cells_repair_infarcted_myocardium

If you break a bone, you know you'll end up in a cast for weeks. But what if the time it took to heal a break could be cut in half? Or cut to just a tenth of the time it takes now? Qian Wang, a chemistry professor at the University of South Carolina, has made tantalizing progress toward that goal.Wang, and co-workers just reported in Molecular Pharmaceutics  that surfaces coated with bionanoparticles could greatly accelerate the early phases of bone growth. Their coatings, based in part on genetically modified Tobacco mosaic virus, reduced the amount of time it took to convert stem cells into bone nodules – from two weeks to just two days.

The key to hastening bone healing or growth is to coax a perfectly natural process to pick up the pace."If you break a rib, or a finger, the healing is automatic," said Wang. "You need to get the bones aligned to be sure it works as well as possible, but then nature takes over."

Source: http://www.sc.edu/news/newsarticle.php?nid=3971