A 3D-printed transparent skull implant

Posted on August 28, 2019 Updated on September 2, 2019

A 3D-printed transparent skull implant.
According to Suhasa Kodandaramaiah, Ph.D., a co-author of the study and University of Minnesota Benjamin Mayhugh Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Science and Engineering “What we are trying to do is to see if we can visualize and interact with large parts of the mouse brain surface, called the cortex, over long periods of time. This will give us new information about how the human brain works. This technology allows us to see most of the cortex in action with unprecedented control and precision while stimulating certain parts of the brain.”

According to Kodandaramaiah and Ebner, the research team was led by fourth-year mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Leila Ghanbari. The research team included several post-doctoral associates, graduate students and undergraduate students including Russell E. Carter (neuroscience), Matthew L. Rynes (biomedical engineering), Judith Dominguez (mechanical engineering), Gang Chen (neuroscience), Anant Naik (biomedical engineering), Jia Hu (biomedical engineering), Lenora Haltom (mechanical engineering), Nahom Mossazghi (neuroscience), Madelyn M. Gray (neuroscience) and Sarah L. West (neuroscience). The team also included partners at the University of Wisconsin including researcher Kevin W. Eliceiri and graduate student Md Abdul Kader Sagar, “This new device allows us to look at the brain activity at the smallest level zooming in on specific neurons while getting a big-picture view of a large part of the brain surface over time. Developing the device and showing that it works is just the beginning of what we will be able to do to advance brain research.”

A 3D-printed transparent skull implant

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