Avita/ReCell Spray-On Skin

This is wonderful medical science.
I just hope it does not fall into the cosmetic industry and
through popularity the price multiplies a thousand fold.

Sounds like a load of hogwash to me. I'm a biological engineer, and I can assure you that 20 minutes is insufficient time for mammalian cells of virtually any type to divide, let alone produce enough by mitosis to cover such a large wound relative to initial cell content. Even if we assume the spray dilutes cells drastically due to dispersion in the media, it would be impossible to do get that many cells.

Furthermore, this would not work because you cannot simply take any somatic cell and use it as a seed to grow; this requires cells that have greater levels or potency or 'stemness', and the mechanisms by which they decide to divide depend entirely on signals from their environment, or niche. Perhaps this could be in the "liquid suspension" media of unspecified additives, but this all seems like wishy-washy science.

Besides, the target customers are hospital staff, and thus, I fail to see the benefits of selling this as a kit rather than the magical components in bulk (besides profit) to agencies, as the cells could be grown in any sort of plate or container. There's nothing special about the packaging.

In theory, this is great. $20/kit could be a literal life-saver. Maybe there's some science going on here that I just don't know about, or hasn't been made public or explicit. But usually, real life is a more a buzzkill.

@ybz90
You're absolutely correct in your assumption about the cell division time. All this machine does is digest the ECM to allow for aerosolization of the biopsied cells. The author seems to have misconstrued something, check out the website:

www.avitamedical.com/index.php?ob=1&id=15

I think you're wrong in your interpretation of the benefit of a kit that can be taken into an clean operating room and used without any training or expertise though. Plus, the benefits of appropriate anti-inflammatory signals from these sprayed-on cells would likely make it a worthwhile process even if they do not seed fresh skin layers themselves.

If this is really, is it actually on the market yet for use in the medical field? I'm getting a skin graft on Tuesday for a large abscess that was removed from my arm. its a 4 1/2 cm x 5 cm on my left for-arm. Would this be an easier and safer method of getting skin than getting a skin graft?

Isn't this just like the skin cell gun developed a while back?

Of course, this is also a single use thing that's probably for a relatively small burn... Still though, anything that helps with burn healing is a boon for the human race, particularly when it's only 20 bucks.

I love this :D

There's a video on youtube showing how this works and the guy that came up with the idea. Search for 'spray on skin'.