How long before your lab internship takes place from home?

by Sara Said

During the lockdown four years ago, traditional lab internships faced significant challenges as lock-down did not allow students to leave their homes. Students were left without hands-on experience crucial for their scientific development. Many practical sessions were replaced with video recordings or data analysis tasks, which lacked the immersive, hands-on training students needed. If virtual reality had been as advanced then as it is now, students could have taken their internships from home, experiencing immersive lab environments and practical training without leaving their houses.

In this article, I will explore how virtual reality is revolutionizing health science education, research, and clinical practice, providing innovative solutions to overcome the challenges faced during the lockdown and beyond.

What is Virtual Reality?

As its name suggests, virtual reality (VR) allows the creation of some kind of reality in a virtual setting. Such a reality is not just a 2D drawing of your imagination. The technology behind VR can create an immersive 360-degree experience. You can be transported into a whole new world – another city, the insides of a worm, or even another solar system entirely – by means of immersive hologram projections, looking at screens or putting on a pair of VR goggles¹.

Around the world, different researchers and scientists have found ways to bring VR technology into their research. Some are using VR to recreate realistic simulations for training and educational purposes or create controlled experimental environments. VR has also allowed for long-distance collaborations between research groups, as well as working remotely.

VR offers sustainable solutions

Research, especially wet lab research, uses a lot of single-use items, such as indivually packaged sterile items in their investigations, causing a harmful impact on the planet. Nevertheless, many labs and research institutions nowadays are reusing and repurposing items before trashing them, thereby decreasing their harm to earth. In addition, VR could play a role here in the future by being able to train techniques (e.g. dissection) or evaluate lab protocols, thus increasing sustainability in research as well as allowing a part of internships to take place from your couch.

The ability to practice endlessly without sacrificing possible environmental impacts and reducing plastic use is an added benefit. Many institutions worldwide have experimented with incorporating a part of their education curriculum into VR. Specifically, within the medical field, significant VR implementation has been reported⁵. The recent introduction of 3D goggles at the Amsterdam UMC’s surgery department has so far been received positively⁶.

Investigating model animals using VR

The Caenorhabditis elegans, a small worm, is one of the traditional model animals used in scientific research because its genome is well understood and it offers a model for simple behaviours. At the Center for Data-Drive Discovery at Caltech, researchers developed a VR model of the C. elegans. With the VR model, virtual worms can be manipulated and studied up close for a longer period without having to use any living animals³. This could be a win ethically, as it would reduce the amount of model animals used in experiments.

Animal research could use the implementation of VR. One example could be in capturing the behavioral changes of animals. A group of Swiss and Japanese scientists collaboratively investigated behavioral changes based on brain and environment interaction in zebrafish. The behavior of living adult zebrafish was manipulated using a VR environment in which the zebrafish were restrained physically. Due to the restraining of the zebrafish, a cleaner neuronal activity measure was captured. Furthermore, using VR environments allowed for easy modification of the environment to investigate the behavioral changes⁴. The 3D experimental environment was fully controlled by the researchers².

Perspective through immersion

One of the applications of VR in research is using the technology to obtain a new viewpoint by immersing yourself. In 2020, scientists at NASA used VR to gain new insights into our galaxy². Their goal was to classify different star groups. Instead of looking at only one star group database at a time, VR gave the researchers a more combined and immersive view. By combining various databases, scientists could ‘fly’ through the different star groups. This then led to some of the earlier classifications of star groups being revisited. Some star groups were classified in the wrong group and others were ‘upgraded’ to a more suitable group. By looking at the star databases combined and from a different angle, the researchers were driven to a new conclusion on their classification compared to what they had stated previously².

Applying VR in the clinic

Outside of research, 3D visualizations can also play a role in the clinic down the line. A computational scientist at the Centre for Data-Driven Discovery at Caltech reports that looking at the 3D level can positively impact research and diagnostics³. In the case of complex structures such as tumors, using a 3D visualization can help gain a better understanding of the complexity. With the ability to visually examine the complex structure up close and from different angles, you can see more compared to a visual inspection of a 2D tissue slice³. Here, the 3D visualization allowed these scientists to gain insights by peeking at their work from another perspective. At the Amsterdam UMC this is currently implemented in the form of holograms used for brain surgery preparations³. Meaning surgeons can more precisely prepare their heart or brain operations by using 3D-images.

Limitations and challenges of VR

Nonetheless, whilst using VR, you get exposed to more screens outside of the usual screen exposure by your smartphone, TV, or laptop. Increased exposure to screens will lead to higher screen time, which has been shown to have many negative effects on weight, motor and cognitive development, social and psychological well-being, behavioral problems, anxiety, hyperactivity, and attention^4,5. By not being careful with the amount of screen time consecutively consumed in VR, when using VR goggles, you could experience symptoms such as nausea and dizziness, also known as VR sickness⁶. VR can be consumed healthily by taking enough breaks in between sessions and not consuming more than 1 hour of VR at once⁶.

Despite increasing interest across various industries, progress in VR development is facing many obstacles. Highlevel complex programming skills are needed to create a functioning VR environment. Limitations in existing technology constrict current growth of the field. The hardware structure needed to house VR are currently very costly, making it less accessible to many labs around the world. For these reasons, implementing VR in every lab might need some further breakthroughs to be feasible for everyone.

Prospects

A VR-powered lab internship may not be on the horizon yet, but ongoing scientific and technological advances suggest an evolving paradigm that challenges the boundaries of traditional approaches. This hints at a future where innovative methods could reshape conventional practices, leaving us to ponder the possibilities that lie ahead. Who knows what the future will hold? An internship from the comfort of your couch at home?

About the author

Further reading

1. Pells, R. (2023). Why scientists are delving into the virtual world. Nature. ↩︎
2. Huang, K. H., Rupprecht, P., Frank, T., Kawakami, K., Bouwmeester, T., & Friedrich, R. W. (2020). A virtual reality system to analyze neural activity and behavior in adult zebrafish. Nature methods, 17(3), 343-351. ↩︎
3. Hart- en hersenoperaties beter voorbereiden met 3D HoloLens. (2024, 12 April). https://amsterdamumc.org/nl/vandaag/hart-en-hersenoperaties-beter-voorbereiden-met-3d-hololens.htm ↩︎
4. Poitras, V. J., Gray, C. E., Janssen, X., Aubert, S., Carson, V., Faulkner, G. .et al. (2017). Systematic review of the relationships between sedentary behaviour and health indicators in the early years (0–4 years). BMC Public Health, 17(S5). doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4849-8 ↩︎
5. Chang, E., Kim, H. T., & Yoo, B. (2020). Virtual reality sickness: a review of causes and measurements. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 36(17), 1658-1682. ↩︎
6. Stiglic, N., & Viner, R. M. (2019). Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents: A systematic review of reviews. BMJ Open, 9(1), e023191. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023191 ↩︎