3D-printing Could Change the Way we Search for Antibiotics
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A small, black box developed in a McMaster University lab could change the way scientists search for new antibiotics.
The Printed Fluorescence Imaging Box – or PFIbox, for short – is capable of collecting massive amounts of data that will help researchers in the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research in their quest to discover new antibiotics.
The box allows scientists to analyze more than 6,000 samples of bacteria at a time.
The tool uses LED lights to excite fluorescent proteins found in bacteria. It then wirelessly sends data to researchers studying how cells respond to antibiotics over time.
The PFIbox’s nine structural parts can be 3D printed in about a day, snapped together in minutes, and costs about $200.
“3D printing is allowing us to create tools and instrumentation that simply don’t exist yet,” says infectious disease researcher Eric Brown, who led the work on the project, along with Shawn French and Brittney Coutts. “Here, we have designed and built an absolutely cutting-edge lab instrument for about $200. It’s simply game-changing for our work to discover new antibiotics.”
The researchers have made the PFIbox’s code open source and available to anyone who wants to use them.
The Printed Fluorescence Imaging Box - or PFIbox, for short - is capable of collecting massive amounts of data that will help researchers in the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research in their quest to discover new antibiotics.
“We fully expect – in fact, we hope – people take the code for this tool and improve upon it,” says French. “We want people to have full access to what we think is a very important new development in the battle against superbugs.”
This article has been republished from materials provided by McMaster University. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.