What is spray-on skin?
Spray-on skin is a burns treatment developed by Australian plastic surgeon Fiona Wood and scientist Marie Stoner in Perth. Skin cells from a small sample of a patient's healthy skin are sprayed onto burns to help them heal.
Traditional skin grafts take large pieces of healthy skin to cover burns, leaving more wounds. Spray-on skin uses a small sample, about the size of a postage stamp, which is processed into a liquid containing living cells.
The cells are sprayed onto the burn, where they grow and spread, helping new skin form faster and often with less scarring.
The Bali bombings
Wood became nationally known after the 2002 Bali bombings, when her team at Royal Perth Hospital treated many badly burned victims, saving lives.
She was named Australian of the Year in 2005 and has continued to research burns care, scarring and wound healing through the Fiona Wood Foundation, which supports burns research and patient care.
The technology has been commercialised as the ReCell system, now used in hospitals in several countries, including the United States, where it was approved for treating burns. It is one of several Australian medical innovations that started in a hospital and became a global product.
Did You Know?
Fiona Wood was born in England and trained in London before moving to Perth.