
Spanish scientists create a 3D bioprinter to print human skin - devinp
http://sciencebulletin.org/archives/9634.html
======
bbayles
Hopefully this new process's product can help alleviate some of the issues
faced by burn victims.

When I was a small child I was run over by a car and severely burned (by the
catalytic converter). I had to have multiple skin grafts, one fairly large.

At the time (1987), a temporary measure was to graft pig's skin over the burn.
This is apparently still done today, but this new process's product (and
others) could conceivably be used instead.

After the temporary graft I got autografts, which involves cutting skin off an
un-burned area and applying it to a burned area. This was pretty painful†, and
I wound up with a bad infection on the donor site.

The grafts have been fine ever since, but they're pretty unsightly (thankfully
my clothes cover them). I also have the scar from the donor site (worsened by
the infection). The artificial skin produced by these new printers will
hopefully prevent some of these issues.

† I have memories of hurting from this, but I was only 1.5 years old, so I'm
not sure if they're really memories or interpolations of things I've been
told.

------
excalibur
The CIEMAT scientists then took an oath that they would never graft the skin
onto a robotic endoskeleton for the purpose of infiltrating human resistance
groups. Watching from the printer control workstation, Cortana remained
silent.

~~~
excalibur
Nobody in the room could bring themselves to mention the other reason why
there was demand for robots with real human skin.

~~~
AtheistOfFail
It's sex bots... isn't it?

Have you seen the new Cortana? Damn!

------
petre
Cool. Does that mean you can print fingerprints with this tech? Might come in
handy in the dystopian world we are headed into.

~~~
justinclift
Being able to leave fingerprints of a high value target at a crime scene could
really make things interesting from a lot of perspectives.

eg: providing false alibi's, setup/framing, coercion/bribery

When (if?) that actually starts to happen, law enforcement could get a whole
lot trickier. :/

~~~
tekromancr
Interesting! Reminds me of "The Unreconstructed M" By Philip K. Dick.
[https://www.jerkersearcher.com/sffaudio_pdfs/TheUnreconstruc...](https://www.jerkersearcher.com/sffaudio_pdfs/TheUnreconstructedMByPhilipK.Dick.pdf)

------
divanvisagie
One step closer to Westworld

------
givinguflac
This looks amazing, but it's a bit vague. While it may be satisfactory as
"functional" skin, does it have nerves?

~~~
ihaveajob
There are no nerves in the epidermis.

~~~
yorwba
It says in the article that they also replicate the dermis.

Although I'm no expert, it seems to me that the dermis _does_ have nerves:
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Skin_lay...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Skin_layers.svg)

~~~
ihaveajob
I stand corrected.

------
DomreiRoam
I m hoping that in some point in the future we will be able to print directly
on the body to repair damage .

I suffer from Keratoconus and the only actual solution is corneal
transplantation; I would be wonderful to be able to grow the cornea in situ.
Bio-startup idea anyone?

------
3chelon
I imagine some years from now a high demand for this by tattoo removal
clinics.

------
brikelly
Maybe they can print a nice thick amount for our new President. He seems to be
in need of it.

~~~
ycHypocdites
Nothing like political jabs to highlight the hypocrisy of YC. Where are the
comments decrying how this sort of comment is not what this community is
about? Where's @dang with his boilerplate lecture?

~~~
tekromancr
IDK, the fact that we are all sitting here, light grey at the bottom of the
page is a pretty good sign the system is working.

