3D Printing of Biomolecular Models for Research and Pedagogy

Beltrame, Eduardo da Veiga; Tyrwhitt-Drake, James; Roy, Ian; Shalaby, Raed; Suckale, Jakob; Krummel, Daniel Pomeranz

doi:10.3791/55427-v

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…FDM 3D printing devices are also capable of printing other materials with varying physical attributes, such as flexibility, strength and transparency, and colors, although safety and printer compatibility need to be considered. We used not only white PLA material but also demonstrated that the multicolored and transparent materials can be adapted to our proposed CiTo-3DP protocol in a way similar to published prototypes [ 13 , 20 , 26 ]. Additional finishing of the models for perception enhancement can be performed, for example, by coating them with silicone rubber as shown elsewhere [ 8 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The development of this approach has the potential to further revolutionize science education, by providing a strong nexus between laboratory skills, computational analysis, and communication of results [ 13 ]. This method has already been utilized in advancing the analysis of biomolecular data sets in the teaching of complex chemical molecular structures [ 26 ]. It is reasonable to suggest that AM technology applied for the reconstruction of micron-scale biological objects can contribute to knowledge generation advancement in life and material sciences, engineering, and medicine.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cells-in-Touch: 3D Printing in Reconstruction and Modelling of Microscopic Biological Geometries for Education and Future Research Applications

et al. 2023

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Additive manufacturing (3D printing) and computer-aided design (CAD) still have limited uptake in biomedical and bioengineering research and education, despite the significant potential of these technologies. The utility of organ-scale 3D-printed models of living structures is widely appreciated, while the workflows for microscopy data translation into tactile accessible replicas are not well developed yet. Here, we demonstrate an accessible and reproducible CAD-based methodology for generating 3D-printed scalable models of human cells cultured in vitro and imaged using conventional scanning confocal microscopy with fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing. We termed this technology CiTo-3DP (Cells-in-Touch for 3D Printing). As a proof-of-concept, we created dismountable CiTo-3DP models of human epithelial, mesenchymal, and neural cells by using selectively stained nuclei and cytoskeletal components. We also provide educational and research context for the presented cellular models. In the future, the CiTo-3DP approach can be adapted to different imaging and 3D printing modalities and comprehensively present various cell types, subcellular structures, and extracellular matrices. The resulting CAD and 3D printed models could be used for a broad spectrum of education and research applications.

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