To make the See-Shell, researchers digitally scanned the surface of the mouse skull and then used the digital scans to create an artificial transparent skull that has the same contours as the original skull. During a precise surgery, the top of the mouse skull is replaced with the 3D-printed transparent skull device. The device allows researchers to record brain activity simultaneously while imaging the entire brain in real time.

Another advantage to using this device is that the mouse's body did not reject the implant, which means that the researchers were able to study the same mouse brain over several months. Studies in mice over several months allow researchers to study brain aging in a way that would take decades to study in humans.


"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," Kodandaramaiah said. "Developing the device and showing that it works is just the beginning of what we will be able to do to advance brain research."

In addition 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.

The research was funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with additional support from Minnesota's Discovery, Research, and InnoVation Economy (MnDRIVE) funding from the State of Minnesota. Several undergraduate students involved in the research were supported by the University of Minnesota Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). The imaging research was made possible by the cutting-edge imaging infrastructure at the University Imaging Center.

To read the full research paper, entitled "Cortex-wide neural interfacing via transparent polymer skulls," visit the Nature Communications website.

Back to HCB News

3D Printing Homepage