Handheld 3D Bioprinter Could Revolutionize Wound Repair Treatment
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="text-align: center;">Handheld 3D Bioprinter Could Revolutionize Wound Repair Treatment

Researchers at the University of Toronto, have now designed a 3D-handheld skin printer that might soon enable healing of deep wounds in a matter of minutes by evenly printing out layers of skin tissue on top of them.

The three layers of the skin are: the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis; and patients with deep skin wounds will often have damage to all these three layers of their skin. Split-thickness skin grafting, wherein healthy donor skin is grafted onto the surface epidermis and part of the underlying dermis of the patient, is the current preferred treatment, the technique has its own set of shortcomings.

And this is where the handheld skin 3D bioprinter steps in to save the day. “Most current 3D bioprinters are bulky, work at low speeds, are expensive and are incompatible with clinical application,” said U of T Associate Professor Axel Guenther.

This handheld bioprinter, in contrast, weighs less than a kilogram and is roughly the same size as a small shoe box. It does not require much in the way of operator training. Also, what makes it cooler is its appearance- it kind of looks like a white-out tape dispenser, but with the tape roll replaced by a microdevice that forms tissue sheets.

Our skin printer promises to tailor tissues to specific patients and wound characteristics,” said PhD student Navid Hakimi.

The researchers, in the future, plan to add several capabilities to the printer, including expanding the size of the coverable wound areas. They also plan to perform more in vivo studies. The team hopes that sometime in the near future, they can begin running clinical trials on humans, and eventually revolutionize burn care.

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