Stem Cells, Hair Loss Treatment, and Politics

I was curious what you’re views might be on stem cell research legislation and how political decisions might impact future progress, since stem cell therapies seem to hold the best promise for a cure to baldness. From what I have read, restrictions placed on research during the socially right-leaning Bush years have set cures back by years. Again, just wondering how you think the political climate can/will affect a cure or better treatments for things like baldness.

Thank you

Although there’s enough political tension in the news lately to cause me to not want to delve into policy talk, I can avoid this topic fairly easily as I really have no idea about the political climate for stem cells. While it is an interesting question, I don’t even know that stem cell therapies hold the most promise to be first across the finish line in cure development. There’s rumblings from Histogen about their stem cell therapy being available “as soon as” 2013, but it could just be more wishful thinking. I recall people supposedly in-the-know saying, “hair cloning will be available within 5 years” — and that was a decade ago.

Timelines in treatment development are constantly in flux during the early stages and I wonder if some of those target dates are hinging on everything going right on the first try. In a perfect world that might be the case, but the reality is that there is a lot of trial and error and many promising technologies never get beyond the development phase. With all that being said, if I had to guess I’d say better drugs will get us closer to the elusive hair loss cure.