Hypoxygen Blog Scientists save child’s life by growing him new skin

By Angela Chen for the Verge.com Click here to read the original article on Verge.com Doctors created enough skin to cover 80 percent of the body of a seven-year-old boy with a genetic disease — and it saved his life. This isn’t the first time that doctors have used genetic engineering to grow new skin, but past attempts only grew a little bit. This time, doctors were able to cover nine square feet of the patient’s body. The boy, who has a genetic skin disease called junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB), had been expected to die. Now, two years after the surgery, he lives a normal life and is able to play sports and exercise, the doctors say. The results were published today in the journal Nature.