Synthetic skin is as good as real

[theblackalchemist]

Synthetic skin is as good as real

 

LONDON: A synthetic skin as good as the natural one is likely to be mass produced, thanks to a new technique pioneered by German

scientists.

 

The good news is that it will be a boon for burn victims, who require extensive skin grafting to cover damaged parts — a very painful process. The availability of this "artificial skin" opens up almost unlimited new possibilities for medical scientists. One of their upcoming projects is to produce intestinal tissue for resorption tests.

 

Tissue engineering has been at the focus of research for many years, and tissues such as cartilage or skin are already being cultured in numerous biotechnology labs.

 

But researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart plan to go a step further. They are aiming to enable fully automated tissue production.

 

First of all, a biopsy is checked for sterility. A gripper arm then transports the biopsy into the automated device where the individual steps are performed

Synthetic skin is as good as real-Health/Sci-The Times of India