Team:Duke/Policy/3D-Printing

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Our question: How can the Duke iGEM team best increase access to synthetic biology?

Our approach: To decrease the cost of entry by means of 3D printing

As our project progressed, we became increasingly aware of the unnecessarily high costs of much of the equipment that we used in our lab. From test tube racks to roller drums, our lab is filled with items that are affordable only under a well-funded lab’s budget. Due to this realization, we contemplated the idea of creating customizable, cost effective lab equipment. We discovered that any university student can obtain free access to AutoCAD, a 3D CAD design software, and that there was a freely accessible and practically unused 3D printer in the basement of Duke’s Perkins Library. We began by designing test tube racks to hold tubes of multiple sizes. Our final design used 34g of plastic, (~3.8% of the polylactic acid, PLA, plastic spool) costing approximately $1.62 in plastic. Purchasing test tube racks online can cost $10-$20 (http://www.labdepotinc.com/c-634-tube-racks.php), not including tax or shipping. Although these price differences are not astounding, labs often need many tube racks, and having relatively inexpensive, highly customizable, and easily replicable tube racks can be beneficial.

As our next 3D printing project, we decided to make a 96-well plate vortex adaptor. Attachments such as these can cost as much as $100 (Source) and Microplate Genie microplate mixers can cost as much as $500-$600 (Source). Our adaptor, however, used only 35g of plastic and cost only $1.67 in plastic to print. Because the Buchler Lab did not have such an adaptor, our design proved to be quite useful and cost effective. From this design particularly, we realized the vast range of possibilities that 3D printed lab parts could offer to underfunded laboratories.

Because of this realization, we decided explore designing and printing more advanced lab equipment that underfunded schools or labs might not be able to afford. The roller drum, because of its high frequency of use in our lab and in any lab that needs to culture cells, was our obvious first choice. We designed and printed the materials needed to make the framework for the roller drum and purchased additional parts to transform the framework into a functional roller drum all for a mere $122.41, less than 6% of the cost of a roller drum.

One important note about the designs is that, when autoclaved, they do not maintain their structural integrity. These results were found by testing small 3D printed designs in the Buchler Lab’s autoclave. Due to the lab uses of our designs, autoclaving these designs is not necessary. However, some lab equipment (micropipette tips, for example) needs to be autoclaved. This poses a limitation on the amount of equipment that can be 3D printed for lab use. Perhaps plastics other than PLA with a higher melting temperature could be safely autoclaved.

While the products we designed are clearly more cost effective for underfunded labs than those available for purchase, self-designed equipment can have many other benefits as well. 3D printed lab equipment is highly customizable. Because labs often have different uses for the same lab equipment, being able to design specialized parts can be highly advantageous to labs. It can provide cheap and easy access to parts that are expensive and possibly nonexistent. Labs can avert their monetary resources away from unnecessarily expensive lab equipment and towards new discoveries and experiments. By lowering the cost of entry into synthetic biology research, more research can be conducted and more discoveries can be made. The transition to 3D printed lab equipment could prove highly beneficial to not only synthetic biology but to practically any research lab.

Comparison of cost of lab equipment: