From knee to neuron, offspring of Yale's 3D printers multiply

Yale neuroscientist Gordon Shepherd has studied neurons for decades. But until recently he'd never had a neuron he could grasp with his own two hands: Neurons are much too small.

Now he's got his very own 3D neuron in all its spidery glory, a vastly enlarged but precise replica that is the latest custom-made anatomical model to emerge from the Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design (CEID). The model neuron is believed to be the first made with a 3D printer.