Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been undergoing rapid development. Its strengths include immersing users in a safe interactive environment and helping them understand hard-to-visualise spatial concepts. Therefore, while traditionally thought only to be for entertainment, previous research has shown that VR could supplement traditional teaching methods like textbooks or lectures.

Mitochondrial dynamics is a subject that is overlooked in some biology textbooks and are usually inaccurately portrayed. This research explores the potential of interactive VR to educate the public as well as students engaged in life science-related subjects on the topic of mitochondrial dynamics.

The outcome of this research consists of an interactive VR application (MitoMover), which “shrinks” the user into a cell. Through hand tracking, the user manipulates the cell’s mitochondria to gain insight into mitochondrial dynamics. Eleven members of the public were invited to assess the sense of perceived presence and knowledge acquisition while using the application. Mean scores (M) for sense of presence were high. With 5 being the maximum score, spatial presence scored M=3.99±0.41(SD), engagement scored M=4.23±0.4(SD), ecological validity scored M=3.87±0.76(SD), and negative effects scored M=1.83±0.78(SD). Users showed significant knowledge acquisition with a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test result of Z= -2.682; p=.007.

Although some individuals struggled with hand gestures and experienced disorientation, there was encouraging feedback regarding the application’s educational potential. Ultimately, MitoMover was shown to successfully enable knowledge acquisition, and deployment at the University of Glasgow for Life Science students and public outreach activities are currently in place.