Now In Production: Human Skin Grown In a Robot-Controlled German Skin Factory
Skin Scaffold A matrix with a vascular system, or BioVaSc (biological vascularized scaffold), on which skin cells can be cultivated at the Fraunhofer skin factory. Der Spiegel Back in 2009, we told you about the skin factory concept at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, where scientists hoped to mass-produce skin at low cost for clinical testing and other uses. Now it's come online, with robots squeezing pink solution into pipettes and turning out sheets of human flesh. Der Spiegel took a look inside. The factory can produce 5,000 penny-sized discs of whitish translucent tissue every month. The designers say it can also come in shades of brown. Each disc will cost about $72, a bit more than expected when the project was in its planning stages two years ago. The German newspaper Der Spiegel took a tour of the facility with its director, Heike Walles; check...