Researchers’ rights here in NC are developing a system that is capable of printing skin on top of burn woods. Using a laser scanner to determine width and depth, then converting those scans to three-dimensional images and calculating the number of layers of skin that's needed, this system has successfully printed skin patches on pigs. It is hard to imagine that this is all contained within one device, which is also portable. Professor James Yoo, from the institute of Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University has a group working on just that. Using 3-D printers that deposit material layer by layer and expanding the range of materials capable of being fabricated to include biological materials, his group has printed skin directly on top of burn wounds.
3-D printing has also been demonstrated by a Cornell University professor who used a computer file containing three-dimensional coordinates and a scan of a human ear to print a silicon gel human ear.
This technology could really be helpful to burn victims and others who have been dis figured, there may one day be systems that can "print" organs and bones. I wonder will there be cosmetic applications available so people could.....forget plastic surgery, just have a new face printed.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-3d-bio-printers-skin-body.html
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