Gertrud Morlock, researcher at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, successfully utilized a Prusa i3 to create patterned plates with 3D printed thin silica gel layers. The Prusa i3 open-source 3D printer can be customized based on various use cases, as it is commercially supplied in a kit form. Morlock and her colleague Dimitri Fichou replaced the extruder provided in the original Prusa i3 kit with an alternative component that is capable of 3D printing thin silica gel layers. According to Morlock, the customized Prusa i3 3D printer was designed by Fichou specifically to conduct thin-layer chromatography. Read more at 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/171697/thin-layer-chromatography/