Hi everyone! I have great news: our printer has finally arrived! I can confidently say it was the highlight of my week. Now we can officially start working on our final project! Since all of our 3D-printed components are downloaded and ready to go, we began printing them right away. We are currently halfway done with 3D printing.
As a reminder, we are working on developing an automated histology slide stainer to facilitate the biopsy preparation on site within the mobile units. Essentially, the 3D printer itself will automate the entire process. I’ve designed a “Headpiece” that will attach directly onto the 3D printer printhead while also holding the slide holder on the bottom. (I’ll post a picture below.) We will then have the actual histology jars that contain the staining solution as well as the alcohol dilutions in a component we call the Jar holder (Will also post a picture below :). The idea is that with the appropriate g-code, we will be able to program the 3D printer to drop the slides in the correct jar for the correct amount of time in order to complete the staining process.
Once we are all done with printing and validating our G-code, we plan on actually testing the procedure with an actual slide in order to compare the quality with a slide stained using the traditional methods.
This week, we also got to see one of Barreto’s traditional celebrations called Festa Junina, which translates to June festival. Ironically, this year’s Festa Junina landed in July. The celebration almost reminded me of a carnival or fair. They had lots of food stands, all of which incorporated corn in some way. You might even say Festa Junina is just a cover for a corn festival! The food was absolutely amazing and so was the music (definitely have a couple of new songs in my daily rotation!).
Festa Junina!!!
Jar Holder – Printing in Progress (only 10 more hours to go 🙁
Headpiece + Histology slide holder
3D Printer
