3D Bioprinter Creates "Living Bandage" Skin Grafts For Burn Victims

concertina226 writes Engineering students from the University of Toronto have developed a 3D bioprinter that can rapidly create artificial skin grafts from a patient's cells to help treat burn victims. In severe burn injuries, both the epidermis (outer layer of the skin) and the dermis (inner layer) are severely damaged, and it usually takes at least two weeks for skin cells to be grown in a laboratory to be grafted onto a patient. As both layers of skin are made from completely different cells that have different structures, it is very difficult for the body to regenerate itself and burn victims can die if their wounds cannot be closed quickly enough. So instead of trying to replicate a real human skin graft, the PrintAlive Bioprinter creates a type of "living bandage" from hydrogel.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Could this be used to, say, print an extension for one's penis?

It's not for me, of course, it's for a friend.

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[davester666]

Sure, you're disappointed he's so small...

it's Alive!

[turkeydance]

patent pending.

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[Anonymous Coward]

All you need is a steady supply of soylent green to print with...

Psst. It's 3D printing for LIFE EXTENSION.

[jeffb (2.718)]

I repeat. It's 3D PRINTING FOR LIFE EXTENSION -- specifically, preserving the life of patients who would otherwise face a fairly quick (and extremely painful) death.

I'm listening for that faint sound of a certain Fark refugee's skull rupturing in the distance.

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[mysidia]

I repeat. It's 3D PRINTING FOR LIFE EXTENSION

Next up.... the singularity [wikipedia.org].

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[spickus]

He would comment but his posts are being censored.

Sounds great

[Anonymous Coward]

Can I have my foreskin back now?

And the source of the "ink"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is the source of the "ink" the stolen body parts from infant boys?

A pretty sick industry that promotes mutilation for profit.

We already have skin regeneration

[bluefoxlucid]

There's already a device to regenerate skin for burn victims. It heals burns in a few days [youtube.com].

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[schneidafunk]

Not available for view in my country :(

Sad this thread is 3/4 Trolls

[Scottingham]

As a motorcycle rider, I welcome this awesome advancement in bio-3d printing. Wake Forest is also doing some incredible stuff with this technology. I'm hoping they can use the superior 3d printing capabilities of stereo-lithography to create a super-detailed biomesh that can later have cells grafted onto it. Currently we have to strip off the cells of a donor organ to get the structure then put the patient's cells in a slurry over that. While that is still amazing, creating the scaffolding is the next b

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[gstoddart]

As a motorcycle rider, I welcome this awesome advancement in bio-3d printing.

I haven't ridden in years, but I spent some time trackside at races and knew a lot of people who rode ... this is cool sounding technology, but in the case of motorcyclists, wear some proper safety gear.

I have seen people riding a motorcycle in essentially cut off shorts.

If that isn't setting yourself up to need a skin graft, I don't know what would be.

Cordura is your friend, and seems to be much more effective that leather for thi

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[Scottingham]

Oh yes, I am full gear all the time! But most riders, like you said, don't have anything on but the legally required helmet (in some states not even that!).