3D Printing The Mystery Of Brain

The museum approached researcher Dr. Henning U. Voss, Associate Professor of Physics in Radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Voss has conducted a decade of research into brain neuron mapping, using MRI scans to create 3D tractograms of brain matter.

"The human brain consists of white and gray matter. The white matter of the brain contains fibers that connect gray matter areas of the brain with each other," he said. "Using an MRI scan of a 40-year-old man, we calculated diffusion tensors, and then created the white matter fiber tracts from them. We handed a surface model of the fiber tracts to Direct Dimensions for processing.”

SLS technology from 3D Systems uses layers of plastic powder that are fused into a 3D definition by powerful CO2 lasers. The materials are robust enough for widespread aerospace and automotive uses, so they knew it would be perfect for this project.

"It was a lot of work for all the teams, but we all knew from the first part that this was going to be stunning," said Jason. "It is a perfect example of the power of 3D printing and we were glad to be a part of something so powerful."

Said Dr. Voss, “The 3D printed model is awesome and utterly exceeds even my most optimistic expectations. This was a fantastic project with an amazing team of people who made it come together.”