Grad Student Leonardo Ramirez’s research at Cold Spring Harbor Lab focused on understanding the brain’s role in behavior, reward, and pain processing. This required surgically implanting fiber optics into specific brain regions of animals with micrometric precision. Implanting multiple fibers became tedious and time-consuming, increasing surgery duration and anesthesia exposure, limiting the number of surgeries performed daily.
Inspired by tetrode drives for electrical measurements, Leonardo designed an optical-drive—a scaffold for aligning and supporting optical fibers during implantation. To bring his vision to life, he turned to Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF) for their ultra-precise 3D printing technology. BMF’s microArch printers provided the precision and material quality needed for lightweight, durable, and highly accurate devices.
Prototypes were iteratively printed using BMF’s high-resolution printers to meet critical requirements:
- Lightweight construction to avoid additional strain on the mice.
- Structural integrity to withstand surgical stress.
- High-precision fiber-optic holders with a critical 240 µm inner diameter channel for alignment and accurate placement of 200 µm core fibers across six different brain regions.
BMF’s printers exceeded expectations, delivering a highly reliable optical-drive with minimal structural deformation. The device significantly reduced surgery times, decreased anesthesia exposure, and allowed for more surgeries per day without compromising the animals’ health. Leo expressed confidence in adopting the 3D printed device as the standard for his research.
“I was impressed by BMF’s understanding of my requirements and their prompt support. The prosthesis turned out even better than I expected—lightweight, strong, and precise. Thanks to BMF, I now have a reliable tool to advance my research with confidence.”
– Leonardo Ramirez, Graduate Student, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
