What began as a modest teaching collection fifty years ago is now Africa’s most advanced anatomy learning centre. Here, at Stellenbosch University’s Tygerberg campus, tradition meets cutting-edge technology as students explore the human body in ways the founder could only imagine, writes SUE SEGAR.
ABOUT HALF A CENTURY AGO, forward-thinking anatomy professor JF Kirsten began assembling a teaching collection at the Tygerberg campus of Stellenbosch University (SU). Inspired by the great medical museums he had visited abroad, he imagined a South African counterpart that would support anatomy teaching and preserve rare specimens for study. What began as a modest collection expanded steadily and became an essential learning resource for generations of medical students at SU’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Fifty years later, that same vision has evolved into Africa’s largest and most technologically advanced Medical Morphology Learning Centre (MMLC), a transformation that Prof. Karin Baatjes, vice-dean of Learning and Teaching, calls “a catalyst for future-ready health professionals”. The MMLC, which launched in August 2025, marks a new chapter in medical education at Stellenbosch. As universities worldwide rethink how to prepare students for increasingly digital and data-driven healthcare systems, Tygerberg has taken a characteristically integrated approach. Within the Biomedical Research Institute, the centre blends the rigour of traditional cadaver-based teaching with immersive technologies: virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) systems, interactive 3D tables and precision 3D printing.
The result isn’t a replacement of tradition, but a reimagined way for students to explore the human body. Now tactile, visual and analytical learning converge in a single adaptive space. “The aim is to reimagine health sciences education and to transform the way students connect with the complexity of the human body,” says Karin.
A visit to the centre, which houses more than 1 300 human specimens, is a fascinating experience and a lesson in biology. There’s a wide range of specimens featuring complex internal structures and highlighting the intricacies of the human body. There are also examples of pathologies: gallstones, the effects of diabetes, tuberculosis, cirrhosis and smoking.
Karin provides tangible anecdotes of how VR and AR systems can be used. Virtual reality involves a screen, headsets and a remote control to select what a person wants to observe.
“The VR systems allow users to explore anatomy in 3D. A student can use the hand-held controls and pull up any anatomical aspect, like the musculo-skeletal or the cardiovascular system. If they’re exploring the cardiovascular system, they can pull up the heart and literally immerse themselves in its structures and specific vessels. As they go, infographics will come up to explain what they’re seeing.
“Using the goggles and headset, they can lean forward and look inside the heart’s chamber. They can revisit the anatomy of a heart valve, showing the actual contractions – how the valve opens and closes and how the blood flows. They can also zoom in and isolate small details of the heart,” Karin explains.
“Then, as students become more senior, they start looking at pathologies and linking the science with treatment modalities. They can click to look at a heart with a pathology and superimpose it on a non-diseased heart to understand how the pathology is impacting the functioning of the heart. And they can do this over and over again, without any risk to a real-life patient.”
On how the touch-table works, Karin continues, “Using a software programme called Primal Pictures™, we have a life-sized table with which students can interact. For example, if they’re looking at the musculo-skeletal system and want to only look at muscle and bone, they can remove the other organs to focus just on that.
“The VR systems allow students to explore anatomy in 3D, to perform virtual dissections, manipulate anatomical structures in real time and examine internal systems from multiple perspectives. They can even simulate clinical procedures. We all see things differently. These systems allow students to turn and twist things around and zoom in wherever they need to, all at their own pace.”
The 3D printer enables the MMLC to print any organ to give a sense of its size, proportions and other aspects. “For instance, in the orthopaedics department, before doing a hip replacement, a surgeon can 3D print a hip joint to get a sense of how it feels to hold the whole specimen in their hand and plan the surgical procedure more precisely.
“Anatomy students can take their time and get hands-on experience, and medical professionals can use the VR to analyse pathology and plan surgeries before they happen, and repeat manoeuvres over and over again without the pressure of having a real-life patient under their care. We want students to be able to grasp and retain knowledge so they can apply it in the clinical space.”
The MMLC’s story goes back almost 50 years, starting in the mid- 1970s as the Anatomy Museum at the Tygerberg Campus. In the early 2000s it expanded to include pathology material and became the Medical Morphology Museum. It was Karin and faculty leadership that drove its transformation from museum to learning centre.
“We were very intentional with the name. We didn’t want to call it a museum because a museum is a static place where you just look at objects. We wanted people to know upon arrival that it’s an immersive space, not just for looking and walking past. Importantly, we want to instil respect and appreciation for the human body.”
The MMLC already supports multiple academic programmes in medicine and the allied health sciences, and welcomes high school groups for guided tours. It also holds regular themed exhibitions linked to public health awareness, such as a recent World Heart Day exhibition that featured artworks on scientific specimens.
Amber Anderson, MMLC coordinator and an MSc Anatomy candidate at the university, explains why she’s excited about the new incarnation of the centre. “It’s a living classroom. Every day I see first- year students discovering the body for the first time, postgraduates conducting research and high school learners getting inspired to pursue careers in health sciences.”
On future plans, Karin says the centre will continue to expand in line with the FMHS’s Vision 2040, which aims to position Stellenbosch as a leader in transformative, inclusive and globally connected health sciences education. “The goal is to ensure the MMLC becomes a hub for lifelong learning that benefits not only SU students, but also the wider community.”
Karin believes Stellenbosch stands abreast with the best globally in terms of innovative, blended education. “The MMLC demonstrates that anatomy education doesn’t need to choose between traditional dissection and modern technology. They can be combined. It won’t be static. As technology changes, we’ll adapt.”
Karin, who spent time in the former museum as an undergraduate student, is thrilled at how it’s evolved. Prof. Kirsten had a vision that lasted this long, and people in the faculty are continuously strengthening it. V