A handheld skin printer designed at the University of Toronto enables the in situ formation of biomaterial and The 3D printer, weighing only 0.8 kg, forms and deposits tissue in only two minutes. Source: Navid Hakimiskin tissue sheets. The 3D printer, weighing only 0.8 kg, forms and deposits tissue in only two minutes.

Deep skin wounds are currently treated by split-thickness skin grafting, where healthy donor skin is grafted onto the surface epidermis and part of the underlying dermis. Sufficient graft skin is not always available for treating large wounds, leading to less than optimal health outcomes. The new portable printer can eliminate this problem by rapid production of the required biomaterials.

The printer is likened to a white-out tape dispenser, equipped with a microdevice that forms tissue sheets in place of the tape roll. Vertical stripes of “bio ink,” made up of protein-based biomaterials including collagen, the most abundant protein in the dermis, and fibrin, a protein involved in wound healing, run along the inside of each tissue sheet. Minimal training is needed to operate the system, which also eliminates the washing and incubation stages required by many conventional bioprinters. Tissue materials can be customized to specific patients and wound characteristics.