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21/12/05/129208 story

Printing Technique Creates Effective Skin Equivalent

posted by janrinok on Sunday December 05 2021, @04:06PM   

upstart writes:

Printing technique creates effective skin equivalent, heals wounds: Material mimics all three layers of the skin, allows for complex printing structures:

The technique is the first of its kind to simulate three layers of skin: the hypodermis, or fatty layer, the dermis, and the epidermis.

"You effectively have three different cell types. They all grow at different speeds," said author Alan Smith. "If you try to produce tri-layered structures, it can be very difficult to provide each of the requirements of each different layer."

To solve this problem, the scientists used suspended layer additive manufacturing (SLAM). They created a gel-like material to support the skin equivalent, twisting and altering the structure of the gel as it formed to create a bed of particles that can then support a second phase of gel injection.

During printing, the skin layers are deposited within the support gel, which holds everything in place. After printing, the team washed away the support material, leaving behind the layered skin equivalent.

If the researchers moved a needle through the supporting gel, it repaired itself faster than other similar techniques. This results in higher resolution printing than previous methods and allows for the printing of complicated skin structures.

Journal Reference:
Richard J. A. Moakes, Jessica J. Senior, Thomas E. Robinson, et al. A suspended layer additive manufacturing approach to the bioprinting of tri-layered skin equivalents [open], APL Bioengineering (DOI: 10.1063/5.0061361)

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Original Submission

• Obvious applicationObvious application (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @04:08PM (4 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @04:08PM (#1202361)

  Another piece of the puzzle that will lead to sexbots.

  • Re:Obvious applicationRe:Obvious application (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 06 2021, @05:43PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 06 2021, @05:43PM (#1202537)

    Next up: robotic rodents.

    Parent

    • Re:Obvious application(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 06 2021, @07:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 06 2021, @07:01PM (#1202551)

      Quick, contact Richard Gere to be your advertising spokesman.

      Parent

  • Re:Obvious applicationRe:Obvious application (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday December 06 2021, @09:06PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) on Monday December 06 2021, @09:06PM (#1202583) Journal

    It is sad that the first post is the most insightful of every reply at this point in time.

    What is the world coming to if a first post is insightful?

    --
    The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.

    Parent

    • Re:Obvious application(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 07 2021, @01:47AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 07 2021, @01:47AM (#1202623)

      Don't blame me, I was trying for Funny.

      Parent

• resistence is futile(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @05:47PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @05:47PM (#1202378)

  ^^

• Lizard peopleLizard people (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @05:50PM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @05:50PM (#1202379)

  Now our British editors will be able to hide their true nature!

  • Re:Lizard people(Score: 2, Touché) by aristarchus on Sunday December 05 2021, @08:32PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday December 05 2021, @08:32PM (#1202403) Journal

    Curious, true, their obsession with "certain" tech, and things STEMmy. Almost exactly what you would expect from Reptilians, if there were any reptilians.

    Parent

  • Comment Below Threshold

    Re:Lizard people(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 06 2021, @04:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 06 2021, @04:05AM (#1202443)

    With their new skins, will they be less "touchy"? A Troll mod seems a bit harsh.

    Parent