# MicroLabVR: Interactive 3D Visualization of Simulated Spatiotemporal Microbiome Data in Virtual Reality

## TL;DR

MicroLabVR is an interactive virtual reality tool designed to visualize complex spatiotemporal microbiome simulation data, making analysis more accessible and intuitive for researchers without requiring expert knowledge.

## Contribution

This paper introduces MicroLabVR, a novel user-friendly VR platform that enables interactive exploration of microbiome simulation data in three dimensions.

## Key findings

- Enables import of CSV datasets with microbial data
- Provides interactive visualization in VR environment
- Enhances understanding of microbiome spatial-temporal dynamics

## Abstract

Microbiomes are a vital part of the human body, engaging in tasks like food digestion and immune defense. Their structure and function must be understood in order to promote host health and facilitate swift recovery during disease. Due to the difficulties in experimentally studying these systems in situ, more research is being conducted in the field of mathematical modeling. Visualizing spatiotemporal data is challenging, and current tools that simulate microbial communities' spatial and temporal development often only provide limited functionalities, often requiring expert knowledge to generate useful results. To overcome these limitations, we provide a user-friendly tool to interactively explore spatiotemporal simulation data, called MicroLabVR, which transfers spatial data into virtual reality (VR) while following guidelines to enhance user experience (UX). With MicroLabVR, users can import CSV datasets containing population growth, substance concentration development, and metabolic flux distribution data. The implemented visualization methods allow users to evaluate the dataset in a VR environment interactively. MicroLabVR aims to improve data analysis for the user by allowing the exploration of microbiome data in their spatial context.