The introduction of affordable, consumer-oriented 3-D printers is a milestone in the current “maker movement,” which has been heralded as the next industrial revolution. Combined with free and open sharing of detailed design blueprints and accessible development tools, rapid prototypes of complex products can now be assembled in one’s own garage—a game-changer reminiscent of the early days of personal computing. At the same time, 3-D printing has also allowed the scientific and engineering community to build the “little things” that help a lab get up and running much faster and easier than ever before.

Penetrating neural probe technologies allow investigators to record electrical signals in the brain. Implantation of probes causes acute tissue damage, partially due to vasculature disruption during probe implantation. This trauma can cause abnormal electrophysiological responses, temporary increases in neurotransmitter levels, and perpetuate chronic immune responses. A significant challenge for investigators is examining neurovascular features below the surface of the brain in vivo. The objective of this study was to investigate localized bleeding resulting from inserting microscale neural probes into cortex using two-photon microscopy (TPM) and to explore an approach to minimize blood vessel disruption through insertion methods and probe design. 3D TPM images of cortical neurovasculature were obtained from mice and used to select preferred insertion positions for probe insertion to reduce neurovasculature damage. There was an 82.8±14.3% reduction in neurovascular damage for probes inserted in regions devoid of major (> 5 µm) sub-surface vessels. Also, the deviation of surface vessels from the vector normal to the surface as a function of depth and vessel diameter was measured and characterized. 68% of the major vessels were found to deviate less than 49 µm from their surface origin up to a depth of 500 µm. Inserting probes more than 49 µm from major surface vessels can reduce chances of severing major sub-surface neurovasculature without using TPM.

Microelectrodes implanted in the brain are increasingly being used to treat neurological disorders. However, robust and reliable chronic application of neural electrodes remains a challenge. Here, we report, the use of conducting polymer nanotubes as highly selective neural interfaces for chronic neural recordings. Poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) nanotubes were formed on the chronic neural microelectrode. The quality of neuronal spike recordings was significantly improved relative to metal electrode sites.

The advent of easy-to-use open source microcontrollers, off-the-shelf electronics and customizable manufacturing technologies has facilitated the development of inexpensive scientific devices and laboratory equipment. In this study, we describe an imaging system that integrates low-cost and open-source hardware, software and genetic resources. The multi-fluorescence imaging system consists of readily available 470 nm LEDs, a Raspberry Pi camera and a set of filters made with low cost acrylics. This device allows imaging in scales ranging from single colonies to entire plates. We developed a set of genetic components (e.g. promoters, coding sequences, terminators) and vectors following the standard framework of Golden Gate, which allowed the fabrication of genetic constructs in a combinatorial, low cost and robust manner. In order to provide simultaneous imaging of multiple wavelength signals, we screened a series of long stokes shift fluorescent proteins that could be combined with cyan/green fluorescent proteins. We found CyOFP1, mBeRFP and sfGFP to be the most compatible set for 3-channel fluorescent imaging. We developed open source Python code to operate the hardware to run time-lapse experiments with automated control of illumination and camera and a Python module to analyze data and extract meaningful biological information. To demonstrate the potential application of this integral system, we tested its performance on a diverse range of imaging assays often used in disciplines such as microbial ecology, microbiology and synthetic biology. We also assessed its potential use in a high school environment to teach biology, hardware design, optics, and programming. Together, these results demonstrate the successful integration of open source hardware, software, genetic resources and customizable manufacturing to obtain a powerful, low cost and robust system for education, scientific research and bioengineering. All the resources developed here are available under open source licenses.