Physical Biomodeling: a new field enabled by 3-D printing in biomodeling

TL;DR

This paper introduces Physical Biomodeling, a novel field enabled by 3D printing that combines experimental physical models with computational biology to study biological systems more effectively.

Contribution

It presents the concept of Physical Biomodeling as a new interdisciplinary approach leveraging 3D printing for biological research.

Findings

Physical models can be designed to scale for biological studies.

Physical Biomodeling complements computational tools and databases.

Potential to advance understanding of complex biological phenomena.

Abstract

Accurate physical modeling with 3D-printing techniques could lead to new approaches to study structure and dynamics of biological systems complementing computational methods. Computational biology has become an important part of research over the last couple of decades. Now 3D printing technology opens the door for a new field, Physical Biomodeling, at the intersection of experimental data, computational biology and physical modeling for study of biological systems, such as protein folding at nano-scale. Here I explore this new domain of precision physical modeling and correlate it with existing visualization and computational systems and future possibilities. Dynamic physical models can be designed to-scale that can serve as research tools in future along with existing biocomputational tools and databases, adding a third angle to tackle unsolved scientific problems.