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For those who are interested in forming an investment group, you may wish to contact Commercial Ventures & Intellectual Property (CVIP) - University of Massachusetts about "Skin Progenitor Cells for Tissue Engineering."

CVIP is a department of the University of Massachusetts. It functions mainly as a link between the faculty and the industry. "The primary mission of CVIP is to secure continuing financial support for research at the University of Massachusetts through the development of mutually beneficial research and licensing agreements between UMass and Industry. "

Dr. Martin P. Vacanti and Dr. Charles A. Vacanti are the inventors of  the "Skin Progenitor Cells" tissue engineering technique. This invention is primarily used for treating patients with skin defects or victims whose skin is damaged by wounds, burns or other diseases. However, it has also been established that this invention can be used to engineer skin that contains hair follicles, which is a major breakthrough in skin grafiting procedures.

Skin grafting has been around for years. It is a tissue engineering technique commonly used to regenerate new skin tissue for burn victims. However, it is widely known that new skin tissue derived from existing skin grafting technique do not bear hair follicles. For one thing, existing skin grafting technique uses a combination of living and non-living cells, eg: cells from cadaver skin. The results are more in the form of a skin-like bandage on the victims with resulting scars and unnatural feel. Dr. Vacanti's technique now brings skin grafting to the next level as most of the fundamentals inherent to our skin tissue, eg: hair follicles, sweat glands, sensory receptors etc. are fully integrated to produce the most natural skin grafting results.

The Skin Progenitor Cells tissue engineering procedure involves isolating multipotent spore-like cells and progenitor cells from the skin or other tissues of the patients. Most researchers believe that multipotent cells are the most valuable in tissue engineering experiements since multipotent cells, if properly conditioned, have the ability to differentiate into different kinds of cells that are invaluable for almost all kinds of medical conditions. It has been reported that Dr. Vacanti's Skin Progenitor Cells can be used to regenerate skin that contains hair follicles, sweat glands as well
as other sensory receptors. Also, the cells can be derived from other human or animal donors.

While Dr. Vacanti's invention can reproduce hair bearing skin tissues, it is unclear how well his technique translantes into growing human scalp hair.  HairSite has initiated contacts with David Warshawsky, Licensing Associate and we have not heard from their office yet. 

As of July, 2000 - Skin Progenitor Cells U.S. patent pending. Foreign patents
to be filed.

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