Mouse Brain Matrix

thingiverse

# Description A Mouse Brain Matrix allows to slice a mouse brain into coronal or sagital sections, enabling precise and reproducible removal of small brain regions biological experiments. These matrices are commercially available, but are expensive and designed for a defined species and age. Reproducibility is a hallmark of good science but usually involves high costs when designs and hardware are proprietary. Open science hardware allows for greater reproducibility while improving accessibility when materials are low cost and easy to obtain, such as in 3D-printable designs. The cost of 3D printing is now within reach of many scientific laboratories allowing for rapid and inexpensive prototyping of custom laboratory equipment. We therefore aimed to produce a simple design that could be used to section brain tissue in a reliable and reproducible manner using freely available software and a consumer grade 3D printer. We have designed a matrix for adult mouse brains from an MRI scan processed with 3D modelling open source software: 3D Slicer, Meshlab and OpenScad. Our matrix is specifically designed for the dissection of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and amygdala using ordinary razor blades and plastic micropipette tips. However, the design can be adapted to slice different regions or brain sizes, and printed in any available material. This object was inspired by "Rapid, simple and inexpensive production of custom 3D printed equipment for large-volume fluorescence microscopy", https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2015.03.042 But their object was never added to the papers supplementary information despite writing to the editor of the journal and to the authors. # Please cite Gianatiempo, O., Alberca, C. D., Filevich, O., Cánepa, E. T. & Chertoff, M. Development of a Low-Cost 3D Printable Mouse Brain Matrix. Abstracts of the 2018 Meeting of Argentine Society for Research in Neurosciences. ASN Neuro 11, 41 (2019).DOI: 10.1177/1759091419834821