Scientists grow replacement skin for boy suffering devastating genetic disorder

A sheet of the laboratory-grown, genetically modified skin.
Photograph: CMR Unimore

Scientists have grown a replacement, genetically modified skin to cover almost the entire body of a seven-year-old Syrian boy who was suffering from a devastating genetic disorder. Before undergoing surgery, the boy had lost 80% of his skin, leaving him covered in untreatable, infected wounds.  He was given morphine to cope with the pain and his doctors were preparing to start palliative treatment after all conventional therapies had failed.

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