The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine has come up with a new technique of skin grafting that works like a printer to improve the treatment of anyone who is unfortunate enough to lose skin.

Dr. Anthony Atala calls the new technique “bioprinting” and has already set up machines to do it in the laboratory doing initial scans on mice. A laser first scans the wound to feed information to the machine, and the “printer” then sprays two layers of cells onto the wound. The cells take care of the rest.

This technique allows skin to heal within two weeks as opposed to five if left untreated. The next phase involves testing on pigs and then, eventually, humans.

Source: Wake Forest University, The Tech Journal