RIDE Center Faculty Fellow - Roderico (Rico) Acevedo, Ph.D.

Roderico (Rico) Acevedo, Professor of Chemistry and Physical Sciences

Dr. Acevedo joined the WSU faculty in the Fall of 2018. He is an award-winning biophysical scientist who is passionate about biomolecular structure and function relationships. His research interests include biochemistry, x-ray and neutron scattering, NMR, and protein-nucleic acid interactions. He has introduced his students to the RIDE Center to give them hands-on experience with 3D printers, which are vital in understanding some of the proteins and other molecules they are learning about in textbooks. Rico also hopes that bringing his students to the RIDE Center will help them understand the basics of 3D printing, virtual reality, and other rapid prototyping equipment they may one day learn to incorporate into their own academic or personal ventures.

A professor talks with a student during a lab activity.

Projects

1. 3D printed insulin and insulin receptors

  • Students constructed their own renderings to model insulin and insulin receptors, and then converted them to a format compatible with RIDE Center 3D printers.
  • Students also had to engineer a “stand” for the proteins to be printed with so that they wouldn’t fall over while printing (due to the irregular shape).
  • Students used paints, glue, and other rapid prototyping equipment to paint their 3D prints as well.
3D printed insulin