{"id":21432,"date":"2015-07-06T15:54:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T15:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=21432"},"modified":"2015-07-06T17:35:32","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T17:35:32","slug":"designer-spotlight-tim-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/designer-spotlight-tim-eyes","title":{"rendered":"Designer Spotlight: Tim Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week we’re excited to highlight Tim Eyes, designer behind fabMOL<\/a>. As a molecular biologist, Tim is using 3D printing to put all those tiny molecules into our hands so we can appreciate the beauty and also learn as much as we can about the molecular world!<\/p>\n

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? Where are you located?<\/em>
\nI\u2019m a PhD molecular biologist based at the University of Manchester, UK. One key area of my research involves understanding the atomic structure of biological molecules such as proteins.<\/p>\n

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What’s the story behind your designs? What inspires you?<\/em>
\nMolecules are beautiful! The funny thing is, although there are a lot of excellent 3D artists on Shapeways, generating amazing objects, nature has got there first! Just take the symmetry of the DNA double helix for example. In the words of a James Watson (Nobel prize in figuring out DNA\u2019s structure) ‘it’s so beautiful’ and yet it is so fundamental to life here on earth! There are some amazing functional designs in molecular biology but it is invisible to us down there at the atomic scale. Using 3D printing I can help people better communicate the science behind these molecules and open up new lines of scientific thought.<\/p>\n

How did you learn how to design in 3D?<\/em>
\nSo it all started one day during my PhD studies, I was at my computer looking at a 3D image of the protein I was working on and I\u2019d recently heard about 3D printing becoming more accessible \u2013 and it occurred to me why can\u2019t I just print this as a model? It would look cool, but would also be great way to communicate molecular biology to my peers and the public. I then figured out how to convert atomic co-ordinates into printable models. I\u2019ve since learned 3D modelling to customise molecules with supports or stands and begun to model wearable items such as jewellery.<\/p>\n