• Question: How does your printer work, and is it real skin?

    Asked by peten to Sean, Asif, Laura, Lena, Viv on 12 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by hattie, ayshacupcake, theblob12, lewdude, jannynishy11.
    • Photo: Sean Murphy

      Sean Murphy answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      The printer started out as a highly modified inkjet printer and it works in a similar way, but instead of ink we load the printer with cartridges containing different types of skin cells. Before we print we use a high resolution scanner to measure the size and depth of the wound and program the computer to print suitable cell types in each area of the wound. We use a special gel to hold all of the cells together in the wound to allow the skin cells the regrow. The skin that results is real skin and looks and feels like your normal skin.

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