Wow, 3D printing is getting interesting. A handheld skin printer
is like a magic wand for healing flesh wounds. It acts like tape
used for correcting a writing error. It can produce a sheet of
skin tissue to cover a wound. University of Toronto engineers
have developed a 3D skin printer that can apparently, form
tissue in situ, depositing and setting in place, within two
minutes or less.
This could serve as a future alternative to regular skin grafts.
However, instead of first requiring that a patient has healthy
skin removed to be grafted elsewhere, this device can roll out a
new layer of bio ink-based, 3D-printed skin tissue.
It is portable and weighs just over 2 pounds and has already
been shown to function when patching up both rats’ and pigs’
wounds. The team is currently conducting wound-healing
experiments to benchmark their approach against established
alternatives.