New technology allows scientists to study the inside of cells using VR
pharmafile | October 20, 2020 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development | VR, Virtual reality, pharma
New virtual reality software allows researchers to “walk” inside cells and analyse them up close in order to better understand the development of diseases and how best to treat them.
The software, named vLUME, was created by scientists at the University of Cambridge and Lume VR and allows high resolution microscopy data to be visualised and analysed in virtual reality (VR). In their research published on Nature, the team describe it as “a virtual reality software package designed to render large three-dimensional single-molecule localisation microscopy datasets”.
“vLUME features include visualisation, segmentation, bespoke analysis of complex local geometries and exporting features,” the team explained. “It can perform complex analysis on real three-dimensional biological samples that would otherwise be impossible by using regular flat-screen visualisation programs.”
The software allows data sets with millions of different data points to be loaded into the program and finds patterns in the data through its in-built algorithms. These can then be shared with other researchers worldwide using the imaging and video software.
Lume CEO Alexandre Kitching commented on the project: “Data generated from super-resolution microscopy is extremely complex. For scientists, running analysis on this data can be very time-consuming. With vLUME, we have managed to vastly reduce that wait time allowing for more rapid testing and analysis.”
Conor Kavanagh
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