This tool of war is truly “avant-garde.”
The U.S. Air Force is developing a science-fiction-worthy skin technology that could soon heal soldiers ’wounds five times faster than the human body, officials said Thursday.
A University of Michigan scientist, Dr. Indika Rajapakse, works with the military branch to investigate ways to “reprogram” a person’s own cells to speed healing, potentially improving the long-term health of soldiers and veterans, the U.S. Air Force said in a Press release.
To investigate the technology that helps the mind, Rajapakse uses a special living cell imaging microscope paid for by the U.S. Air Force, along with an elaborate algorithm, he said.
“The impact of this research effort can be far-reaching,” Rajapakse said. “We have the resources to do that and it’s our obligation to make the most of them.”
Cell reprogramming involves taking a type of human cell, such as a skin cell, and reactivating its genome so that it becomes a different type of cell, such as a muscle or a blood cell.
Other details, such as when the technology could be prepared for use, were not immediately available.