Walking inside cells with virtual reality

Super-resolution (SR) microscopy is an expansive and developing scientific field that employs techniques used in physics and chemistry to image biological systems on the scale of nanometres. A nanometre (nm) is 1 × 10^–9 m, which is one-millionth of a millimetre. Being able to see things at this scale requires sophisticated equipment.

SR experiments force fluorescent molecules (i.e. molecules that can emit light of a specific wavelength) in a sample to switch on and off rapidly. Recording these ‘blinking’ events over time builds-up a picture that encodes positional information as x, y and (sometimes) z coordinates. Data obtained in this way have shed great insight into biological systems, which would look blurry through a traditional microscope, due to the diffractive nature of light.

Take a look

Physicist Richard Feynman said:

“It’s very easy to answer many of these fundamental biological questions; you just look at the thing!”

Inspired by the words of Feynman, Dr Steven F Lee and his research group at the University of Cambridge set out to remedy the lack of immersive data analysis tools available. In collaboration with LUME VR, they pioneered vLUME: a virtual reality (VR) software package designed to render large datasets from 3D SR microscopy experiments. With vLUME, researchers in the Lee Lab can get up close and personal with neurons, immune cells and cancer cells to answer crucial biological questions that were once shrouded in mystery.

Biology occurs in 3D, but up until now it has been difficult to interact with the data on a 2D computer screen in an intuitive and immersive way. This software allows researchers to explore, analyse, segment, and share their data in new ways. All you need is a VR headset.

Dr Steven F Lee

Further Reading

The peer-reviewed journal article vLUME: 3D virtual reality for single-molecule localization microscopy is avalible to read at Nature Methods.