A small square device made of plexiglass, which could fit in the palm of your hand, has shown promise as a model of human disease that could speed research for treatments for herpes and other infections.
Inside the square are sandwiched several layers of human skin cells, seeded and grown into a thin swatch of skin about the size of a dime. A grid of living blood vessels lies beneath the tissues, keeping them alive.
Through one of the many holes on the top of the plexiglass, you can insert a tiny metal probe to punch a perfect circle through the layers of living skin. Next, you drop into the wound a dose of herpes simplex virus.
