Using 3D Printing to Make Models for Visualization of Protein Structure

Résumé fourni par la source

Structures of 10 proteins from the Protein Data Bank were 3D printed as part of an undergraduate biochemistry teaching laboratory. All structures were successfully printed in either a space filling surface representation or a cartoon representation that traces the Cα carbon atoms of each amino acid residue. All structures were printed using poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with water dissolvable poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) supports. The cost of making the models ranged from $11.02 to $24.48, and the total print time of each model ranged from approximately 42 to 103 h. PDB files were downloaded from RCSB.org (accessed 2022-04-20) into PyMol to be converted into .stl files. The .stl files were sliced using Ideamaker and printed on a Raise3D E2 printer. Quaternary structures were printed using a surface representation, but monomers were printed using a cartoon representation of the Cα skeleton. Monomers were checked using the modeling program Crystallographic Object-Oriented Toolkit (coot) to fix any gaps in the structure due to incomplete X-ray crystal models. This project was used to teach concepts such as protein structure, protein function, and computer graphics in an undergraduate biochemistry course.

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