Imagine being able to cover and heal wounds using a 3D printer. That’s the idea that researchers at the University of Toronto when they developed a portable, handheld 3D skin printer. The machine is capable of applying 3D-printed skin on a person. They say that this is the first device that’s capable of forming skin directly on top of a wound in under two minutes. The applications of this technology are vast and could surely be disruptive for this industry.
The researchers say that the handheld 3D skin printer can apply layers of skin tissue directly on a person to heal and cover wounds. They add that while it’s similar to a typical skin graft, it doesn’t require healthy skin from a donor which is then grafted on the patient.
This device basically looks like a white-out tape dispenser which users “bio ink” skin tissue to 3D print skin on the affected area. They have yet to test the printer on a human patient but the researchers have been able to demonstrate the idea on a pig.
The video posted above shows that it can cover and heal the would using the bio ink skin graft. The team is now mulling expanding the size of coverable wound areas and are hopeful that they will eventually be able to start clinical trials on human patients.
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