Mobile bioprinters: the future of wound healing?

Researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (NC, USA) have produced the world's first mobile skin bioprinting system which can print bi-layered skin directly into a wound to encourage healing and reduce scarring. Non-healing wounds, like diabetic pressure ulcers and burns, affect millions of people world-wide and techniques to treat them are expensive requiring multiple treatments. The current approved method is to use skin grafts but achieving adequate coverage of the wounds is a challenge and there is usually a limited amount of healthy skin to harvest. The team is hopeful that their novel bioprinting technique will provide...