Anna Maria Coclita

So the skin is a complex system where there are a lot of things that are actually all working together at the same time.

There is the possibility to reconstruct the skin more or less, that it kind of looks similar to before the burn, but still the sensation is lost.

We have receptors that are for strong touch, light touch, that is for the temperature.

We have millions of receptors.

And then they transmit this information through electrical stimuli to the brain, thanks to the nerves, nerve connections.

So it's a very complex system.

This is a piece of skin, of artificial skin.

We have, for the first time, produced an artificial skin that can respond at the same time to three stimuli.

Touch, so force, temperature, and humidity.

And it can do this also at an unprecedented resolution.

So it's a very tiny device.

And so this means that it can sense objects that are actually smaller than the objects that can be sensed with our skin.

So first of all, imagine burns victims.

If the burn is very deep, this burns up until the lower level of the epidermis and this makes patients lose sensation.

If one could make completely artificial skin, then this artificial skin could be applied as a patch in the area where there is the burn and give back the sensation to the people who have lost it.

This artificial skin is actually thinner than the cross section of a hair.

So it's basically impossible to see and impossible to really feel it when you touch it.

So it takes the properties and the characteristics of the support material.

So if we deposit it on top of a glove, it will look like a glove.

We have even deposited on top of this transferable tattoos, you know, the type that kids use.