Saturday, February 19, 2011

Stem Stell Spray Gun can heal skin burns

The future of health care technology is here! We discussed this briefly in class, referencing an episode of Futurama, but the "future technology" of using stem cells is already being implemented. In burn victims, most of the damage is caused by infection and other secondary effects aside from the burn. The current technology for growing skin is too slow, according to the video, and there is a need for patients to be able to regrow skin more quickly. In the video below by National Geographic, scientists have used a person's own stem cells (from the epithelia), multiplied them, then sprayed them onto the person's burns. This has lowered the recovery time MAJORLY from what was previously being done.
To me, this represents the future of health care and shows infinite possibilities in what we can do as biomedical engineers and physicians. No babies were harmed in the use of the stem cells -- just ingenuity of the body's own stem cells.
Check out the 3 minute video below, it's only 3 minutes and will leave you feeling inspired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXO_ApjKPaI

And here is a textual article about the spray gun, if that's what you'd rather see:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-skin-cell-gun-drastically.html

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