Virtual Reconstruction and Three-Dimensional Printing of Blood Cells as a Tool in Cell Biology Education

The cell biology discipline constitutes a highly dynamic field whose concepts take a long time to be incorporated into the educational system, especially in developing countries. Amongst the main obstacles to the introduction of new cell biology concepts to students is their general lack of identifi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-08, Vol.11 (8), p.e0161184-e0161184
Main Authors: Augusto, Ingrid, Monteiro, Douglas, Girard-Dias, Wendell, Dos Santos, Thaisa Oliveira, Rosa Belmonte, Simone Letícia, Pinto de Oliveira, Jairo, Mauad, Helder, da Silva Pacheco, Marcos, Lenz, Dominik, Stefanon Bittencourt, Athelson, Valentim Nogueira, Breno, Lopes Dos Santos, Jorge Roberto, Miranda, Kildare, Guimarães, Marco Cesar Cunegundes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
21st century
3-D printers
Accessibility
Animals
Biology
Biology and Life Sciences
Blood cells
Blood Cells - cytology
Cell culture
Cell division
Colleges & universities
Developing countries
Education
Educational technology
Electron microscopy
Engineering and technology
High school students
Identification methods
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
LDCs
Learning
Male
Medical imaging
Medicine and Health Sciences
Modernization
Museums
Printing, Three-Dimensional
Prototyping
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Research and Analysis Methods
Research facilities
Scanning electron microscopy
Schools
Science education
Silicon wafers
Social Sciences
Structure-function relationships
Students
Study and teaching
Teaching methods
Technology application
Textbooks
Three dimensional models
Three dimensional printing
Tomography
User-Computer Interface
Virtual reality
Young adults
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Summary:The cell biology discipline constitutes a highly dynamic field whose concepts take a long time to be incorporated into the educational system, especially in developing countries. Amongst the main obstacles to the introduction of new cell biology concepts to students is their general lack of identification with most teaching methods. The introduction of elaborated figures, movies and animations to textbooks has given a tremendous contribution to the learning process and the search for novel teaching methods has been a central goal in cell biology education. Some specialized tools, however, are usually only available in advanced research centers or in institutions that are traditionally involved with the development of novel teaching/learning processes, and are far from becoming reality in the majority of life sciences schools. When combined with the known declining interest in science among young people, a critical scenario may result. This is especially important in the field of electron microscopy and associated techniques, methods that have greatly contributed to the current knowledge on the structure and function of different cell biology models but are rarely made accessible to most students. In this work, we propose a strategy to increase the engagement of students into the world of cell and structural biology by combining 3D electron microscopy techniques and 3D prototyping technology (3D printing) to generate 3D physical models that accurately and realistically reproduce a close-to-the native structure of the cell and serve as a tool for students and teachers outside the main centers. We introduce three strategies for 3D imaging, modeling and prototyping of cells and propose the establishment of a virtual platform where different digital models can be deposited by EM groups and subsequently downloaded and printed in different schools, universities, research centers and museums, thereby modernizing teaching of cell biology and increasing the accessibility to modern approaches in basic science.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0161184