Resources

3D Printable Molecular Model Kits

• Ready-to-print DNA modeling kit

  • Stacks of backbone and nucleobase parts

  • 3 types of engineered connectors for easy assembly and disassembly

  • STLs for 100% part stacks available at https://3d.nih.gov/entries/3DPX-017650

  • STLs for 75% part stacks available at https://3d.nih.gov/entries/3DPX-018017

• Journal article describing kit and nanoechnological applications

  • "Modular, articulated models of DNA and peptide nucleic acids for nanotechnology education" by Caleigh Goodwin-Schoen and Rebecca E. Taylor. The Biophysicist. 2023.

  • Link to paper doi 10.35459/tbp.2022.000225

• Classroom activities

  • Guides construction of a DNA duplex, a polymerase demonstration, molecular tweezers and Holliday junction

  • Supplementary materials PDF

Reprinted from Goodwin-Schoen and Taylor. The Biophysicist (2023) doi:10.35459/tbp.2022.000225

MoleculeCrafter Built in Onshape

Semi-automated design of ANY molecular model is possible using MoleculeCrafter, our custom suite of tools built within Onshape. This platform allows for conversion of atomic coordinate data to unitized parts with custom connectors that can be readily 3D printed. Example input CSVs are provided below. These files can be imported into MoleculeCrafter for model-creation learning activities.

MoleculeCrafter Tutorials on Youtube

• MoleculeCrafter Tutorial Part 1 - Getting Molecular Data from a Database

• MoleculeCrafter Tutorial Part 2 - Viewing the File in ChimeraX:

• MoleculeCrafter Tutorial Part 3 - Parsing the Data:

• MoleculeCrafter Tutorial Part 4 - Creating Molecules and Adding Connectors:

• MoleculeCrafter Tutorial Part 5 - Scaling, Aligning, and Stacking