The dissection of human cadavers left to science has long been used as a way to teach students about human anatomy.
Laurentian University students now have the opportunity to examine the bodies of Victor, Vicky, Carl, Carla and Hans (not their real names) virtually, through a new piece of high-tech equipment.
The Sudbury university is the proud owner of a $150,000 virtual dissection table manufactured by the American company Anatomage. The device is the only one in Northern Ontario.
The bodies of the aforementioned cadavers — two of whom were healthy, and the others with diseases such as cancer — were intricately dissected and imaged to show everything from their skeleton to circulatory system to muscle layers.
A database of MRI and CT scans of a variety of human subjects and animal species is also available, as well as a simulation of a mother giving birth. It can be moved to different angles so you can get various views of the body.
“We received it on Dec. 20, just on time for Christmas,” said Eric Gauthier, full professor of biochemistry at Laurentian, and the director of the university’s school of natural sciences.
“It was an awesome Christmas present.”
The instrument will be used for students interested in pursuing careers in life sciences or in health professions, such as medicine, kinesiology or nursing.
Gauthier said having the tech makes Laurentian more attractive and is beneficial to students.
Laurentian was able to pay for the new equipment through a grant through Ontario's Training Equipment and Renewal Fund (TERF).
The received a little more than $1 million from the province, which it matched with its own funds, for a total of $2.17 million to spend.
“That's the big advantage, is basically that we got that table for half price, right?” said Gauthier, referring to the matching grant. “We're a small institution. One of the major cards that we can play is the fact that we can provide our students with hands-on training and one-on-one training in a lot of cases.
“And you can train all these students all you want, but if you don't have equipment that is close to what is found on the market and the job site, then that training is still useful, but it's not as useful as it could be. So it's important to try and keep up to date with the equipment that is used by industry.”
Jill Kusnierczyk, a second-year student in Laurentian’s biomedical biology program, was excited to get a preview of the brand spanking new piece of equipment while it was being shown off to Sudbury.com recently.
“Right now, I'm in the anatomy and physiology class and lab, and to be able to see a whole system, like in one piece, instead of like flipping through a book or looking through like our lab manuals, is a huge advantage, especially when you start to understand that all the systems are like overlapping with one another,” she said.
“To see how they connect and how the whole body functions as one body instead of just individual systems, is really interesting to see and exciting as a student, for sure.”
Kusnierczyk said she’s hoping to eventually go into health care, so the Anatomage table tech is advantageous.
“This is like dealing with a patient,” she said “You're able to actually conceptualize a human, instead of just a plastic model and taking apart a plastic model.”
A press release put out by Laurentian last year on the receipt of the provincial TERF funds said they would support the establishment of a centralized hub for the hands-on training of students in STEM programs at Laurentian University.
Located in the Perdue Analytical Facility on the Laurentian campus, this hub will integrate three key elements: a molecular analysis and characterization instrumentation core, a virtual reality laboratory and a multimedia laboratory for science communication.
Gauthier calls the $500,000 virtual reality lab at the Cliff Fielding Research, Innovation and Engineering Building the “cherry on the cake and the pièce de résistance.”
To be unveiled in an event later this winter, the VR lab will be used for teaching, research and outreach.
Since this is the only facility of its kind in the region, Gauthier said Laurentian is looking forward to interacting with other academic institutions and industry who would be interested in using the tech.
“We're starting to learn how to use it, because the learning curve is quite steep,” he said. “It's quite an advanced piece of equipment. But, yeah, it's pretty cool.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.