How 3D Printing is Helping to Advance Scientific Research

YAt the Brandeis University MakerLab, Eduardo Beltrame has been on the forefront of teaching students and educators how to print these complex models on desktop printers. Imagine helixes, oblique angles, large overhangs and intricate crevices. Yet when faced with a 3D printing challenge, Eduardo seems to embody the philosophy of “where there’s a will, there’s a way”. Eduardo assists Biochemistry students by teaching them his process, and has published his complete instructions online that contain valuable instruction for anyone interested in printing complex scientific models.

Néstor uses a variety of tools in Simplify3D to make his printing process more efficient, but his favorite is “the ability to use several processes and configurations in a single print.” This feature allows him to adjust the layer height throughout his model depending on the resolution required, significantly reducing the print time of large models while improving print quality for highly-detailed sections. Using these tools and strategies, he has replicated everything from small pieces of Roman pottery to full-scale busts and statues. After he has printed the replicas, Néstor then finishes and paints the replicas to make them look exactly like the originals. Recently he scanned a 2,300 year old statue, and 3D printed it in its actual size, over four feet tall! It was printed in twenty-one pieces, glued together over a base structure, and painted to resemble the original statue. He printed this replica for Spanish museum, Vilamuseu, to use while the original stayed at its current home, the National Archaeological Museum of Spain.

Impact of 3D Printing in Museum and Research Industries

While talking to Eduardo about his process, he introduced us to colleague experimenting with similar molecular models. James Tyrwhitt-Drake is another researcher on the forefront of 3D printed molecular models. James works with the U.S National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the NIH 3D Print Exchange, which is like Thingiverse for the life sciences – a community-driven portal that provides bioscientific and medical models for 3D printing. The 3D Print Exchange can automatically generate 3D models of more than 6 million molecules in scientific databases.

James recently sent us photos of a print that caused all of us to take a second look. While anyone who studied science may have seen a drawing of a molecule, it is fascinating to see a lifelike molecule that you can hold in your hand! The challenge he faced was printing a flexible model of an HIV protein, the ENV trimer along with and antibodies binding to it. The model was requested by a researcher at NIH who solved the 3D structure of the protein. ENV is present on the surface of HIV and helps the virus enter human cells. The model needed to be printed in flexible material in order to determine how the antibodies bind to the protein. The Flexible material mimics the flexibility of the protein and allows researchers to get a better grasp on how these different structures come together.

In order to accomplish this, James managed to print all of these elements out of NinjaFlex material. Many printing experts have been challenged to achieve high-quality results with flexible materials, but James managed to print one of the most complex models we have ever seen, including complex support structures, completely in the flexible material!

According to James, removing the supports and cleaning up the model was a bit of a challenge, but the end result allows researchers to study protein molecules with a new perspective.