Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on
February 3, 2011 6:30 AM Subscribe
Dr. Jörg C. Gerlach has developed a new device for applying a regenerative skin and stem cell slurry onto burn victims in an airbrush-like spray - providing astounding results in mere days. (Warning - mildly graphic images of severe burns being remedied with SCIENCE!)
Incredible!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:48 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:48 AM on February 3, 2011
The paper is probably still in the process of publication, or the journal they published with is being a dick about the rights.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:48 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:48 AM on February 3, 2011
Bonus - carefully coiffed mad scientist hair!
Yep, nice hair... but not sure it'll earn him a place in the LFHCfS just yet. Maybe he could spray on some more.
posted by samworm at 6:50 AM on February 3, 2011
Yep, nice hair... but not sure it'll earn him a place in the LFHCfS just yet. Maybe he could spray on some more.
posted by samworm at 6:50 AM on February 3, 2011
Laughably fake.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 7:08 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 7:08 AM on February 3, 2011
Before: someone's hand and wrist, closeup
After: someone's (someone else's?) shoulder and arm, farther away
Yep, science
posted by rahnefan at 7:10 AM on February 3, 2011
After: someone's (someone else's?) shoulder and arm, farther away
Yep, science
posted by rahnefan at 7:10 AM on February 3, 2011
Laughably fake.
yeah I don't know anyone who'd trust National Geographic.
posted by Max Power at 7:16 AM on February 3, 2011
yeah I don't know anyone who'd trust National Geographic.
posted by Max Power at 7:16 AM on February 3, 2011
This is fucking incredible. Like, I can't even express how amazing this is and how optimistic it makes me.
I'm also pleased they decided to make the gun look so (possibly unnecessarily) badass.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 7:20 AM on February 3, 2011
I'm also pleased they decided to make the gun look so (possibly unnecessarily) badass.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 7:20 AM on February 3, 2011
... or it's fake. Sadfaice.
you guys ruin everything
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 7:20 AM on February 3, 2011
you guys ruin everything
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 7:20 AM on February 3, 2011
you guys ruin everything
Seriously guys, I was excited for like 3 minutes.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:28 AM on February 3, 2011
Seriously guys, I was excited for like 3 minutes.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:28 AM on February 3, 2011
THEY BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE!
posted by blue_beetle at 7:35 AM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by blue_beetle at 7:35 AM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
I am grateful for this treatment, and also for the potential of airbrushable prosciutto.
posted by zippy at 7:50 AM on February 3, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by zippy at 7:50 AM on February 3, 2011 [4 favorites]
The concept, is a cool concept and the guy looks pretty good considering that serious burns happened at all. It might not be ready for prime time yet but this is a promising development and appropriatly sci-fi considering we're in the future and all.
posted by I Foody at 7:58 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by I Foody at 7:58 AM on February 3, 2011
there's a guy on reddit who used to work with the burn patient and explains exactly why this is a piece of SciFi loosely based on Dr. Gerlach's work.
posted by ts;dr at 8:11 AM on February 3, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by ts;dr at 8:11 AM on February 3, 2011 [3 favorites]
i meant to write: "used to work with burn patients", not worked with this particular patient.
posted by ts;dr at 8:12 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by ts;dr at 8:12 AM on February 3, 2011
The concept is neat, but I wonder about increased cancer risk -- Regranex, for example (a gel containing human growth factors for healing diabetic ulcers), was found to increase risk of all cancers.
posted by Comrade_robot at 8:21 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by Comrade_robot at 8:21 AM on February 3, 2011
Can it be used to re-build a foreskin?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:29 AM on February 3, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:29 AM on February 3, 2011 [4 favorites]
My favorite part is when they call the doctor "George".
posted by creasy boy at 8:32 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by creasy boy at 8:32 AM on February 3, 2011
The critique ts;dr links is right on the money; I was coming to say something similar but now I don't have to. I do want to add that the video does mention that the patient had second degree burns, now called partial thickness in the medical field. These can heal pretty well on their own as long as they are kept clean. I had pretty extensive second degree burns on my left leg from the knee down when I was a kid as a result of some foolishness with matches and gasoline. I spent most of the summer with the leg covered in gauze and Silvadene (and no swimming) but it healed completely and you have to look very closely to see any scarring. Third degree (full-thickness) burns, on the other hand, involve destruction of tissue beneath the skin and are responsible for the horrible scars most people associate with severe burn victims. When they can treat those burns with this, I'll be impressed.
I did a quick pubmed search on Gerlach and didn't find anything on this research, so either I missed it (a real possibility) or it has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. Having said that this sort of thing does appear to be an area of research he has a lot of experience in, so it is not completely made up. So my take is that it is not ready for prime time yet and the benefits have been dramatized in the style of all too much credulous science journalism, but there is some real potential there.
I live next door to the director of this place; if I see him (he is rarely home) I will get his take on it.
posted by TedW at 8:47 AM on February 3, 2011
I did a quick pubmed search on Gerlach and didn't find anything on this research, so either I missed it (a real possibility) or it has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. Having said that this sort of thing does appear to be an area of research he has a lot of experience in, so it is not completely made up. So my take is that it is not ready for prime time yet and the benefits have been dramatized in the style of all too much credulous science journalism, but there is some real potential there.
I live next door to the director of this place; if I see him (he is rarely home) I will get his take on it.
posted by TedW at 8:47 AM on February 3, 2011
there's a guy on reddit who used to work with the burn patient and explains exactly why this is a piece of SciFi loosely based on Dr. Gerlach's work.
He seems to have missed the point which isn't the gun, tho the gun is cool, but the new technique for generating a skin graft from stem cells and cells taken from the patient that takes only a few hours, instead of weeks, and can be deployed on the patient with an instrument that doesn't require the fragile artificial skin to be handled.
He has a point about debriding the wound - on a moderate second degree burn, after debriding, it would be bright, bright pink, and not look as terrible as it would before any treatment. They wouldn't bother taking photos before the patient was prepped for treatment... so it's a decision by NatGeo to sensationalize things a bit. More serious 2nd degree or 3rd degree burns would not look so smooth after healing.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:00 AM on February 3, 2011
He seems to have missed the point which isn't the gun, tho the gun is cool, but the new technique for generating a skin graft from stem cells and cells taken from the patient that takes only a few hours, instead of weeks, and can be deployed on the patient with an instrument that doesn't require the fragile artificial skin to be handled.
He has a point about debriding the wound - on a moderate second degree burn, after debriding, it would be bright, bright pink, and not look as terrible as it would before any treatment. They wouldn't bother taking photos before the patient was prepped for treatment... so it's a decision by NatGeo to sensationalize things a bit. More serious 2nd degree or 3rd degree burns would not look so smooth after healing.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:00 AM on February 3, 2011
something something Darkman
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:04 AM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:04 AM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
I liked the disassociated organs at the beginning. That no-one else commented on them makes me wonder if I saw the same video.
posted by LD Feral at 9:34 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by LD Feral at 9:34 AM on February 3, 2011
I mean, come on, organs in a tank, fluttering away- if that doesn't say Future, I don't know what does. Other than hoverboards, I guess.
posted by LD Feral at 9:36 AM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by LD Feral at 9:36 AM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
Why does that high-tech computer controlled air brush sputter out irregularly spaced blobs? I'll use my regular air brush, after I clean out the prosciutto essence.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:07 AM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:07 AM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
You punks are all too young to remember Dr. McCoy had this on Trek TOS, so get off my Rigellian sawgrass lawn whydontcha!! *shakes artificial fist, spills a little mint julep*
posted by zoogleplex at 10:20 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by zoogleplex at 10:20 AM on February 3, 2011
That gun and a cheese grater could be a whole new way to remove tatoos!
posted by Redhush at 7:58 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by Redhush at 7:58 PM on February 3, 2011
You know what this means? Skin graft-fiti. 10 years from now, we'll hear about some prankster from a university biochem lab getting in trouble for spraying some drunk dude's buttcrack shut at a party. 20 years from now, we'll be seeing rebellious teenagers proudly sporting artificial reptilian horns, frills, and ridges covered in a few layers of spray-on skin. 30 years from now, we'll be shuddering at tabloid holophotos of a 60-year-old Paris Hilton showing off her new Barbie-pink skinjob.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:01 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:01 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
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