Toward an open‐source 3D‐printable laboratory
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: McNair M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10873812 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:BACKGROUND:Malaria vector control and research rely heavily on monitoring mosquito populations for the development of resistance to public health insecticides. One standard method for determining resistance in adult mosquito populations is the World Health Organization test (WHO bioassay). The WHO bioassay kit consists of several acrylic pieces that are assembled into a unit. Parts of the kit commonly break, reducing the capacity of insectaries to carry out resistance profiling. Since there is at present only a single supplier for the test kits, replacement parts can be hard to procure in a timely fashion. METHODS:Using computer-aided design software and widely available polylactic acid (PLA) filament as a printing material, we 3D designed and printed replacement parts for the WHO bioassay system. We conducted a comparison experiment between original WHO bioassay kits and 3D printed kits to assess congruence between results. The comparison experiment was performed on two Kenyan laboratory strains of Anopheles gambiae (s.s.), Kilifi and Mbita. Student's t-tests were used to assess significant differences between tube types. Finally, we exposed the PLA filament to common solutions used with the bioassay kit. RESULTS:We were able to design and print functional replacements for each piece of the WHO bioassay kit. Replacement parts are functionally identical to and interchangeable with original WHO bioassay parts. We note no significant difference in mortality results obtained from PLA printed tubes and WHO acrylic tubes. Additionally, we observed no degradation of PLA in response to prolonged exposure times of commonly used cleaning solutions. CONCLUSIONS:Our designs can be used to produce replacement parts for the WHO bioassay kit in any facility with a 3D printer, which are becoming increasingly widespread. 3D printing technologies can affordably and rapidly address equipment shortages and be used to develop bespoke equipment in laboratories.
| S-EPMC6857140 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Bioreactors have been employed in tissue engineering to sustain longer and larger cell cultures, managing nutrient transfer and waste removal. Multiple designs have been developed, integrating sensor and stimulation technologies to improve cellular responses, such as proliferation and differentiation. The variability in bioreactor design, stimulation protocols, and cell culture conditions hampered comparison and replicability, possibly hiding biological evidence. This work proposes an open-source 3D printable design for a perfusion bioreactor and a numerical model-driven protocol development strategy for improved cell culture control. This bioreactor can simultaneously deliver capacitive-coupled electric field and fluid-induced shear stress stimulation, both stimulation systems were validated experimentally and in agreement with numerical predictions. A preliminary in vitro validation confirmed the suitability of the developed bioreactor to sustain viable cell cultures. The outputs from this strategy, physical and virtual, are openly available and can be used to improve comparison, replicability, and control in tissue engineering applications.
| S-EPMC10757336 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Growth in open-source hardware designs combined with the low-cost of high performance optoelectronic and robotics components has supported a resurgence of in-house custom lab equipment development. We describe a low cost (below $700), open-source, fully customizable high-throughput imaging system for analytical microbiology applications. The system comprises a Raspberry Pi camera mounted on an aluminium extrusion frame with 3D-printed joints controlled by an Arduino microcontroller running open-source Repetier Host Firmware. The camera position is controlled by simple G-code scripts supplied from a Raspberry Pi singleboard computer and allow customized time-lapse imaging of microdevices over a large imaging area. Open-source OctoPrint software allows remote access and control. This simple yet effective design allows high-throughput microbiology testing in multiple formats including formats for bacterial motility, colony growth, microtitre plates and microfluidic devices termed 'lab-on-a-comb' to screen the effects of different culture media components and antibiotics on bacterial growth. The open-source robot design allows customization of the size of the imaging area; the current design has an imaging area of ~420 × 300mm, which allows 29 'lab-on-a-comb' devices to be imaged which is equivalent 3480 individual 1μl samples. The system can also be modified for fluorescence detection using LED and emission filters embedded on the PiCam for more sensitive detection of bacterial growth using fluorescent dyes.
| S-EPMC6863568 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In human being's history, both the Iron Age and Silicon Age thrived after a matured massive processing technology was developed. Graphene is the most recent superior material which could potentially initialize another new material Age. However, while being exploited to its full extent, conventional processing methods fail to provide a link to today's personalization tide. New technology should be ushered in. Three-dimensional (3D) printing fills the missing linkage between graphene materials and the digital mainstream. Their alliance could generate additional stream to push the graphene revolution into a new phase. Here we demonstrate for the first time, a graphene composite, with a graphene loading up to 5.6 wt%, can be 3D printable into computer-designed models. The composite's linear thermal coefficient is below 75 ppm·°C(-1) from room temperature to its glass transition temperature (Tg), which is crucial to build minute thermal stress during the printing process.
| S-EPMC4495599 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Small, genetically tractable species such as larval zebrafish, Drosophila, or Caenorhabditis elegans have become key model organisms in modern neuroscience. In addition to their low maintenance costs and easy sharing of strains across labs, one key appeal is the possibility to monitor single or groups of animals in a behavioural arena while controlling the activity of select neurons using optogenetic or thermogenetic tools. However, the purchase of a commercial solution for these types of experiments, including an appropriate camera system as well as a controlled behavioural arena, can be costly. Here, we present a low-cost and modular open-source alternative called 'FlyPi'. Our design is based on a 3D-printed mainframe, a Raspberry Pi computer, and high-definition camera system as well as Arduino-based optical and thermal control circuits. Depending on the configuration, FlyPi can be assembled for well under €100 and features optional modules for light-emitting diode (LED)-based fluorescence microscopy and optogenetic stimulation as well as a Peltier-based temperature stimulator for thermogenetics. The complete version with all modules costs approximately €200 or substantially less if the user is prepared to 'shop around'. All functions of FlyPi can be controlled through a custom-written graphical user interface. To demonstrate FlyPi's capabilities, we present its use in a series of state-of-the-art neurogenetics experiments. In addition, we demonstrate FlyPi's utility as a medical diagnostic tool as well as a teaching aid at Neurogenetics courses held at several African universities. Taken together, the low cost and modular nature as well as fully open design of FlyPi make it a highly versatile tool in a range of applications, including the classroom, diagnostic centres, and research labs.
| S-EPMC5515398 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Synthetic oligonucleotides have become a fundamental tool in a wide range of biological fields, including synthetic biology, biosensing, and DNA storage. Reliable access to equipment for synthesizing high-density oligonucleotides in the laboratory ensures research security and the freedom of research expansion. In this study, we introduced the Open-Source Inkjet DNA Synthesizer (OpenIDS), an open-source inkjet-based microarray synthesizer that offers ease of construction, rapid deployment, and flexible scalability. Utilizing 3D printing, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi, this newly designed synthesizer achieved robust stability with an industrial inkjet printhead. OpenIDS maintains low production costs and is therefore suitable for self-fabrication and optimization in academic laboratories. Moreover, even non-experts can create and control the synthesizer with a high degree of freedom for structural modifications. Users can easily add printheads or alter the design of the microarray substrate according to their research needs. To validate its performance, we synthesized oligonucleotides on 144 spots on a 15 × 25-mm silicon wafer filled with controlled pore glass. The synthesized oligonucleotides were analyzed using urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
| S-EPMC10867077 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Dense surface registration, commonly used in computer science, could aid the biological sciences in accurate and comprehensive quantification of biological phenotypes. However, few toolboxes exist that are openly available, non-expert friendly, and validated in a way relevant to biologists. Here, we report a customizable toolbox for reproducible high-throughput dense phenotyping of 3D images, specifically geared towards biological use. Given a target image, a template is first oriented, repositioned, and scaled to the target during a scaled rigid registration step, then transformed further to fit the specific shape of the target using a non-rigid transformation. As validation, we use n = 41 3D facial images to demonstrate that the MeshMonk registration is accurate, with 1.26 mm average error, across 19 landmarks, between placements from manual observers and using the MeshMonk toolbox. We also report no variation in landmark position or centroid size significantly attributable to landmarking method used. Though validated using 19 landmarks, the MeshMonk toolbox produces a dense mesh of vertices across the entire surface, thus facilitating more comprehensive investigations of 3D shape variation. This expansion opens up exciting avenues of study in assessing biological shapes to better understand their phenotypic variation, genetic and developmental underpinnings, and evolutionary history.
| S-EPMC6465282 | biostudies-literature
Project description:For the past decade, additive manufacturing has resulted in significant advances toward fabricating anatomic-size patient-specific scaffolds for tissue models and regenerative medicine. This can be attributed to the development of advanced bioinks capable of precise deposition of cells and biomaterials. The combination of additive manufacturing with advanced bioinks is enabling researchers to fabricate intricate tissue scaffolds that recreate the complex spatial distributions of cells and bioactive cues found in the human body. However, the expansion of this promising technique has been hampered by the high cost of commercially available bioprinters and proprietary software. In contrast, conventional three-dimensional (3D) printing has become increasingly popular with home hobbyists and caused an explosion of both low-cost thermoplastic 3D printers and open-source software to control the printer. In this study, we bring these benefits into the field of bioprinting by converting widely available and cost-effective 3D printers into fully functional, open-source, and customizable multihead bioprinters. These bioprinters utilize computer controlled volumetric extrusion, allowing bioinks with a wide range of flow properties to be bioprinted, including non-Newtonian bioinks. We demonstrate the practicality of this approach by designing bioprinters customized with multiple extruders, automatic bed leveling, and temperature controls for ∼$400 USD. These bioprinters were then used for in vitro and ex vivo bioprinting to demonstrate their utility for tissue engineering.
| S-EPMC9426752 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Tissue adhesives are promising alternatives to sutures and staples for joining tissues, sealing defects, and immobilizing devices. However, existing adhesives mostly take the forms of glues or hydrogels, which offer limited versatility. We report a direct-ink-write 3D printable tissue adhesive which can be used to fabricate bioadhesive patches and devices with programmable architectures, unlocking new potential for application-specific designs. The adhesive is conformable and stretchable, achieves robust adhesion with wet tissues within seconds, and exhibits favorable biocompatibility. In vivo rat trachea and colon defect models demonstrate the fluid-tight tissue sealing capability of the printed patches, which maintained adhesion over 4 weeks. Moreover, incorporation of a blood-repelling hydrophobic matrix enables the printed patches to seal actively bleeding tissues. Beyond wound closure, the 3D printable adhesive has broad applicability across various tissue-interfacing devices, highlighted through representative proof-of-concept designs. Together, this platform offers a promising strategy toward developing advanced tissue adhesive technologies.
| S-EPMC10853267 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The application of 3D printing to biological research has provided the tissue engineering community with a method for organizing cells and biological materials into complex 3D structures. While many commercial bioprinting platforms exist, they are expensive, ranging from $5000 to over $1,000,000. This high cost of entry prevents many labs from incorporating 3D bioprinting into their research. Due to the open-source nature of desktop plastic 3D printers, an alternative option has been to convert low-cost plastic printers into bioprinters. Several open-source modifications have been described, but there remains a need for a user-friendly, step-by-step guide for converting a thermoplastic printer into a bioprinter using components with validated performance. Here we convert a low-cost 3D printer, the FlashForge Finder, into a bioprinter using our Replistruder 4 syringe pump and the Duet3D Duet 2 WiFi for total cost of less than $900. We demonstrate that the accuracy of the bioprinter's travel is better than 35 µm in all three axes and quantify fidelity by printing square lattice collagen scaffolds with average errors less than 2%. We also show high fidelity reproduction of clinical-imaging data by printing a scaffold of a human ear using collagen bioink. Finally, to maximize accessibility and customizability, all components we have designed for the bioprinter conversion are provided as open-source 3D models, along with instructions for further modifying the bioprinter for additional use cases, resulting in a comprehensive guide for the bioprinting field.
| S-EPMC9805454 | biostudies-literature