Over the years, the Makerspace staff have helped with numerous projects connected to the UVA Medical School and Hospital. Here are six projects I have worked on over the past year or so.

Woodchuck Liver Tumor Slicer

In the summer of 2022, two medical students reached out to the Makerspace seeking support for making a 3D model from CT and MRI scans. The students were working in a radiology lab over the summer and need a process for creating a mold from the scans. What were the scans? Livers. Livers from woodchucks. What did they want to do with the mold? Put the liver in it. And then slice it up so they could do tests on the tumors in the liver. And that was how the woodchuck liver tumor slicer was created.

Imagine my surprise, when in the summer of 2023, another student asked for the same thing!

Files for Replication

• Fusion 360 file
• 3D printing file - Slicer top
• 3D printing file - Slicer bottom

3D Printing Protein

In Fall 2023, Ilya Levental asked about 3D printing a beautifully structured protein called caveolin.

With a little effort and a lot of support material removal, we were able to get a nice model of the protein printed.

Files for Replication

• 3D printing file - caveolin protein

Mouse Pup Anesthesia Bed

Lou Legouez, a post doctoral researcher at UVA’s Neuroscience department, requested help with creating a bed and mask cone adapted for mouse pups that undergo anesthesia. It sounded like an interesting project, so I was able to model a part and 3D print a prototype.

Files for Replication

• Fusion 360 model
• 3D printing file - mouse bed

Neonatal Rib Cage

One of the earliest efforts to assist UVA’s medical field was in from 2021; an inquiry from the Medical Simulation Center to 3D print a baby sized rib cage for students to practice placing chest tubes in infants. Apparently, the center would use chicken rib cages for this purpose. With models available online for this, I was able to 3D print some rib cages for the center.

Files for Replication

• 3D printing file - ribs

Motion Capture Clusters

Dante Goss, a PhD student in Kinesiology, was looking for some replacement motion capture clusters. The department had received these clusters some years ago, but who created them and how was lost to history. One of the clusters had recently broke and was unusable. I was able to take the measurements from the old ones and model some new ones in Fusion 360. A usable model came after a couple of iterations.

I decided to put the files on a popular 3D printing website so anyone can use them. The Fusion files and .3mf files are available for download at the following site:

Files for Replication

• 3D files for clusters

Petri Dish Comb

While most of my help ends up successfully, some do not. Point in case is the attempt to print a petri dish comb for Louis Wilson from UVA’s Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics Department. They had a filament 3D printer available, but printing in PLA was not an option as the part deformed and warped when applied to the hot temperatures in the medical equipment. This meant using a more sturdy material, which we could do with our resin printer. Louis was able to procure the materials and we provided the printer.

I tried several times and with several different resins to print a usable comb, but most of the attempts had too much support and left spurs on the comb tines rendering it unusable, or the finished product was so brittle and fragile that the tines broke off, or the resin was so old that it produced more of a mess than a prototype.

Files for Replication

• small petri dish comb

While I have no formal training in biomedical engineering, or engineering in general, I love the opportunity to help people solve problems. And that’s what life is pretty much all about anyways. We all have problems and issues. Finding people to help us find solutions can bring happiness!

Collaboration with Dr. Zimmerman began in 2022 through a request to create a life-size, life-like model of a heart that he and other fellows could use to practice the movement of catheters inside the heart. Ideally the model would be clear and hollow. Due to time constraints the project was put on hold until the summer of 2023.

The original request was unable to be created due to the limitations of FFF printers and our lack of quality resin for our Form 2 printer.

So, like all good projects, we came up with the next best thing; a 3D printed, life-size heart with extra holes to make it usable for practice surgery.

I found a version online at https://www.printables.com/model/5612-anatomic-heart-multi-material, which provided the perfect model.

My 3D printed version came out pretty close!

After viewing this version, Dr. Zimmerman had a few alterations in mind that would improve the model. I was able to pull the .stl files from printables.com into Autodesk Fusion for digital manipulation.

The first attempt made sure the atrium and ventricle pieces could fit together and included most of the holes. I forgot a few, and Dr. Zimmerman had a couple more altercations, so it was back to the proverbial drawing board.

The second attempt was “good enough”™ even if orange in color. I think I gave him a couple of versions in a more medical white or red.

Dr. Zimmerman was very grateful for the heart models and noted that they would be useful for learning anatomy and showing patients what would be done to their hearts during surgery.

The .3mf files can be downloaded here for your printing enjoyment:

• atrium
• ventricle