3D printing the human bodyIn [BME-176: 3D Printing the Human Body] I learned about the emerging applications of 3D printing in medicine. My final project explored both FDM and SLA/DLP workflows to fabricate a scaffold implant for bone regeneration.
FDM
Viewing CT scan/patient data and creating layer masks in 3D Slicer to isolate cortical and cancellous bone regions.Exporting outer and inner bone layers as stl.[Ender 3V2 - white PLA]
Experimenting with modifiers in PrusaSlicer to get gradient infill density like that in human bones. Pictured are slices of a femur obtained through the NIH Visible Human Project.
SLA/DLPWe used Rhino Grasshopper to generate a voronoi lattice that mimics the structure found in bone. In the process, we considered how design parameters of our scaffold would affect its biomechanical function.The voronoi structures we generated.[Form 3 - clear resin]
Used boolean operation to subtract mass from mandible, simulating bone loss.
[Form 3 - clear resin], [Ender3V2 - white PLA]
Printed a pseudo implant for bone regeneration. Experimented with different infill patterns.
[Anycubic Photon - clear plant-based resin]
[Left, Middle - reference prints of human bone structure]
[Right - our voronoi model]