A team from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine 3D bioprints face mask to heal wounds

The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) in the United-States aims to translate scientific discovery into clinical therapies. Today, this interdisciplinary team is working to engineer more than 30 different replacement tissues, organs and develop healing cell therapies.

A 3D bioprinted mask to heal face wounds

Recently, a team coming from WFIRM published in the journal Bioprinting their new research. In fact, their proof-of-concept research uses 3D bioprinting technologies to produce customised, bioengineered skin substitutes. The new solution which they’ve called “BioMask” is incorporated into a dressing and fits tightly and directly onto a patient’s facial wound, like a mask.

Usually, traditional treatments for facial wounds include transplanting healthy skin from the same person or someone else to where it is needed. These treatments often come with the risk of infection and scarring. Furthermore, in the case of burn patients another complication can be the lack of sufficient undamaged skin to harvest grafts.