Is There A Software For 3D Printing Of Pdb Structures?

Question

[Michael]

I have just learned that we have a 3D printer, unfortunately I don't know the model and make. I was thinking about trying to print a PDB structure with it (just for fun now, but could be interesting for teaching). Is there software that allows to convert PDB files into formats supported by 3D printers, or has anyone tried this before and can share their experience. Or does this not make sense? Coding 3-D printers - The newest sub-field of bioinformatics? is somewhat related but focuses on lab equipment.

[Biomonika (Noolean)]

Well, you can start with printing combs in case PDB structures are not available: http://vort.org/2012/11/20/why-doesnt-your-lab-have-3d-printer-yet/ :-)

[Damian Kao]

Here is a blog that recommends using UCSF Chimera to render the pdb and save as .stl files.

http://ironchefsynbio.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/3d-printed-enzyme-structure/

[J. Maupetit]

A modern molecular viewer is the key to render your molecule 3D structure. We use PyMol at RPBS.

[Ben]

Here are some, and a vague method of going from PDB to 3d print. Would be good to see your results!

Answer 1

[Alastair Kerr]

You need a converter from the PDB format to openSCAD or at least to STL). There was a post on the makerbot website for the openscad converter but it is now 404ing but seems to be replaced by this post which includes a link to a fortran binary for conversion to openSCAD.

I think your success will depending on the structure though: see this blog post and the results that used chimera to perform the conversion to STL.