See-Shell: 3D printed transparent skull to ‘see’ how the brain works

At the University of Minnesota, researchers have developed a unique 3D printed transparent skull implant for mice. The skull named the See-Shell can be used to view real-time activity on the brain surface and could provide new insights for human brain conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Suhasa Kodandaramaiah, Ph.D. and co-author of the study explains, “What we are trying to do is to see if we can visualise and interact with large parts of the mouse brain surface, called the cortex, over long periods of time. This will give us information about how the human brain works.” The study published in the journal Nature Communications states that non-human primates share similar genetics, anatomy, physiology and behaviour to humans; in this case mice provide a good substitute. Timothy J.Ebner, Professor at the University of Minnesota and co-author of the study comments, “These are studies we couldn’t do in humans, but they are extremely important in our understanding of how the brain works so we can improve treatments for people who experience brain injuries or diseases.”

Image via Nature communications

3D Printing the See-Shell

In order to make the See-Shell, the researchers digitally scanned the surface of the mouse’s skull and then used this to model the frame using CAD software. The frame has the same contours as the original skull and was 3D printed out of PMMA (also known as acrylic). On the frame, a thin and transparent PET film was attached forming the window to the mouse’s brain. Following this, the top of the mouse skull was replaced with the 3D printed transparent skull device. Suhasa Kodandaramaiah explains, “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. Developing the device and showing that it works is just the beginning of what we will be able to do to advance brain research.”