04
October
2017
|
00:00 AM
Europe/Amsterdam

Pitt researchers developed a VR game about viruses, but it wasn't easy to get onto the app store

It's an arduous task to understand how the herpes virus spreads throughout the body. That's true whether you're a 10-year-old student or an engineer with a degree or two.

"You don't ever get to visualize and actually see how the molecules interact with the cells," said Jason Shoemaker, an assistant professor in chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. "It's hard to visualize, even for engineers ... we design systems and sometimes have a hard time picturing how things exist in a biological system."

In February, Mr. Shoemaker and the students in his research group called the Shoemaker Immonsystems Lab, began a nearly six-month journey to make these biological mechanisms easier to understand through gamification.

Read the full story at the Post-Gazette.

Author: Courtney Linder, Post-Gazette

Contact: Paul Kovach