Researchers from the University of Toronto have created a revolutionary handheld 3D printer, but this one is no 3Doodler. The handheld device 3D prints skin and it could help heal patients suffering from severe burns.
According to the researchers, it works like a paint roller, but instead of paint, it uses bio-ink. It looks like a packing tape gun, but with a single-use printhead and a soft wheel.
Created by a team from the university’s engineering department and Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, it prints stripes of bio-ink to cover the wound. The ink is a mix of stem cells that promote skin regeneration and reduce scarring. In initial tests with pigs, the devices improved healing.
Severe burns are often treated with skin grafts, which requires harvesting healthy skin from other parts of the body. The printer has proven not only to be a quicker treatment but one capable of improving wound healing, particularly for significant, third-degree burns that destroy all layers of the skin. Such severe injuries can cover much of the body and make skin grafts difficult, if not impossible.
The prototype debuted in 2018 and has since gone through 10 iterations. The researchers hope to develop the device further and have it in hospitals within the next five years.
