An experimental technology offers new hope to patients who have suffered a severe burn.

The product, from New York biotech firm RenovaCare, is rooted in cutting-edge stem cell research. The CellMist System harvests a patient's stem cells from a small area of unwounded skin (usually one square inch) and suspends them in a water-based solution. The SkinGun sprays the solution onto the wound, where new skin begins to grow at the cellular level.

"We don't modify the cells," said Thomas Bold, an engineer and president and CEO of RenovaCare.

"We don't do anything with the cells. We just isolate them from the surrounding tissue, put them in a syringe within a water-based solution, and we spray them.

"What we're doing is all natural," he added.

The survival of cells shooting out of the SkinGun is instrumental, since cells "injured" in the process of spraying might not grow properly. According to Bold, 97% of the cells in the syringe remain viable, and so the chances of healing the wound are great.

Though the patented product has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, experimental treatments (PDF) have been conducted in Pennsylvania, informs CNN.