Take a virtual tour of lab’s vital work

BEHIND the scenes look . . . reporter Lucy Kenderdine tries out the Cancer Research UK virtual reality lab tour

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IN the run up to World Cancer Day on February 4, the Oldham Evening Chronicle has joined cancer charities to highlight the important work being done to beat the disease. Here Lucy Kenderdine reports on a unique way of exploring a Manchester laboratory’s work



CANCER Research UK supporters can get an exclusive behind the scenes look at the world-class innovations taking place in Manchester — with the help of a special viewer.

The charity is offering a virtual tours of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute to see how donations fund lifesaving research. The tour, which lasts around three and a half minutes, takes users through four different laboratories, describing the start-to-end journey of research into a new cancer drug.

Narrated by PHD scientist Dr Marina Parry, the tour explains how each new drug goes from basic biology to clinical trials at the University of Manchester centre.

Michael Docherty, director of digital at Cancer Research UK, said: “This virtual lab tour is another way we are bringing the public and our supporters closer to our life-saving research.”

Every year Cancer Research UK gives around 10,000 dedicated supporters a physical tour of one of its 20 research centres.

The limited numbers have prompted the charity to develop this virtual tour which far more people will be able to view.

As well as using holograms, viewers can interact with a microscope and look at cell samples — from a piece of tissue to inside the nucleus of a single cancer cell — used to help discover and test new treatments.

The technology is still in its early stages and will be used at Cancer Research UK events across the country this year.

The charity is also hoping to be able to offer the tour more widely with the creation of a free smartphone app which can be downloaded and used with a Google Cardboard viewer that can posted to supporters.


Immersed in life-saving research

Lucy was given the chance to use the viewer to be one of the first people to experience the virtual tour.


The experience is like something from a sci-fi film. I put on the headphones, bring the viewer to my eyes and I’m suddenly immersed in the laboratory, watching scientists take part in potentially life-saving research.


During the tour Dr Parry explains each stage of the drug development without unnecessary jargon. No matter which way you look, the lab is always visible and scientists move around to work.

As we move between the different areas, the narration continues, stopping to allow me to take a look through a microscope and see the inside of a cancer cell and learn how drugs target them.

The image of the cell is crystal clear and detailed, a far cry from the microscope experiments in my biology lessons at school, and far more interesting.

It’s certainly an eye-opening experience and I feel far more invested in how my donation will help this World Cancer Day.