Abstract 2652 Opportunities and challenges in adopting virtual reality for teaching biomolecular visualization

Virtual reality (VR) is a cutting-edge technology with promise in biomolecular visualization education. The immersive environment created by VR allows a user to manipulate and experience three-dimensional biomolecular modeling in an active and tangible way. To help educators adopt this new technology, we held several workshops and follow-up sessions for faculty on using the MetaQuest2 hardware and the app Nanome, which is developed for 3D viewing of macromolecules and drug design. The four sessions included an 1) Introduction to the hardware, 2) Nanome basics such downloading and viewing protein structures and mutagenesis 3) Extended Nanome applications such building molecules, docking and collaborations and 4) Setting up Nanome to work in home institutions.