LabTrainingVR: Biosafety Cabinet Edition vs Openlab

LabTrainingVR: Biosafety Cabinet Edition is a free virtual reality course for practicing safe work in a biological safety cabinet (BSC). Its 1.5 hours of training cover identifying Class II BSC parts, maintaining positive airflow, preparing for work, applying safe practices, decontaminating and shutting down, and emergency shutdown procedures. The course is designed for laboratory professionals, including public health and clinical laboratory staff, safety professionals, and others interested in safe BSC use. It supplements CDC’s existing eLearning course on working safely in a BSC. Learners practice in a virtual laboratory without exposure to pathogens or risk of accidental infection or release. The course is headset-only, with versions for HTC Vive and Oculus Quest 2; the equipment guide also identifies Meta Quest 2 and above and OpenXR-compatible headsets. It requires 360° tracking and a play area of at least 3 by 3 feet, with 20 by 20 feet listed as ideal. HTC Vive and tethered-headset setups require Windows 8.1 or later, at least 8 GB RAM, and 20 GB available storage, among other hardware requirements. Quest setup requires Wi-Fi and a mobile device for initial installation.

Openlab provides immersive virtual biology and chemistry labs for students to practice laboratory protocols before entering a physical lab. Learners can interact with virtual equipment such as pipettes and test tubes, and explore molecular structures and DNA. Interactive quizzes test learners at each protocol step, while teachers can track progress through a web dashboard. Professors can request virtual labs based on an experiment described in a document or video. Openlab currently supports Oculus Quest 2 with hand tracking, so students interact using their hands. The maker suggests using the labs before real lab work, as a class supplement, or as a group activity. Openlab says it will ship a headset to an institute for a limited-time free trial and help with setup. Its terms state that services are free of charge, while noting that fees or subscriptions may be introduced in the future with notice. The platform is web-based, and the company is based in Varese, Italy.