Article: Manufactured skin extends new hope for healing wounds.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Aug. 15--With a long Q-Tip, Dr. Vincent Falanga peels the pale pink disk from its dish. It's as thin and translucent as the rubber gloves on his hands, and he stretches it between his fingers to demonstrate its toughness and pliability.

What he's holding is a new medical device.

But the stuff is also alive. It comes packed in nutrients, so it can eat, and resides in an incubator set to a comfortable 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Poke holes in it, and it will heal.

The floppy substance is skin, not exactly artificial skin, but, in a sense, human-made -- grown from living human cells in a factory in Canton, Mass., and ...

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