We created a fictional story themed on currently approved COVID-19 vaccines, which have been developed using the new mRNA manufacturing method by extracting messenger RNA genetic information from the virus’s spike proteins and packing it into vaccine particles. Vaccines developed with such a method are unstable in the human body and break down quickly once injected. On the other hand, research in targeted immunotherapies shows that vaccine delivery directed to antigen-presenting cells (APCs) like dendritic cells has the potential to maximize the effectiveness of the vaccine because APCs play a critical role in activating other immune cells and triggering an immune response in the human body. Therefore, the user in our VR experience is assigned a fictional top-secret mission to drive a nanobot ship loaded with COVID-19 vaccine particles inside the human lymphatic system, search for dendritic cells, and deliver the vaccine to them once they are found and identified. The user has to complete the mission under a time constraint due to the short shelf-life of the vaccine. Once the mission is accomplished, the user has to find a way to exit the lymphatic system without being detected by activated immune cells and attacked by antibodies.
The prototype runs on Oculus Quest 1 & 2 VR headsets.
Here are some screenshots of the virtual environment and experience.
This demo project won the Best 3DUI Award at the 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces.
Zhang, L. et al. (2021, March). Fantastic Voyage 2021: Using Interactive VR Storytelling to Explain Targeted COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery to Antigen-presenting Cells. In 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) (pp. 695-696). IEEE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW52623.2021.00230
If you would like to try out the demo yourself, here is the link to the Oculus Quest 2 Installation Package.