The baldies' big hope, Intercytex, has raised £12m from existing shareholders, bringing total funding to £31m since the company was founded in 2000.

Headquartered at St John's Innovation Centre in Cambridge, Intercytex has developed a way of stimulating human cells to reproduce, not only to re-start hairgrowth, but also to accelerate wound-healing and replace skingrafts with specially grown skin replacement.

The baldness treatment involves taking a small biopsy or sample hair follicles during a half-hour operation under local anaesthetic at a hair or skin clinic.

The sample is then sent to Intercytex' manufacturing plant in Manchester where the hairproducing cells are extracted and nurtured for three weeks before being returned to the clinic to be injected into the patient's scalp.

The company says a new head of hair should be evident after three months.

Early trials have proved successful, with further ones planned for next year in the UK and US.

The latest investment comes from existing shareholders, Cambridge- based Avlar BioVentures, 3i, Cambridge Gateway Partnership, plus Sir Chris Evans' Merlin Biosciences, NIF Ventures, and Scottish Equity Partners.

Nick Higgins, Intercytx ceo, said: "We are extremely pleased to have raised this considerable sum and are fortunate to have such committed and supportive investors."

The money will be used to complete late-stage trials of the wound care product, take the hair regeneration product through laterstage clinical trails, and to move the living skin replacement programme into clinical trails.

Intercytex has also announced two new board appointments, Alan Suggett, formerly group director with Smith & Nephew, and John Aston, cfo at Cambridge Antibody Technology.