Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute Virtual Tour

The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, part of the University of Cambridge, is one of the largest cancer research facilities in Europe. Biologists, clinicians, chemists, engineers and computer scientists work there side by side to help understand, prevent and treat cancer.

Research like this is hard to picture from the outside, and much of it happens in laboratories the public can never enter. The Institute wanted to show the journey of a sample, from a patient in the clinic, through the labs, to the data, in a way anyone could follow. We photographed the clinic and the labs while they were working, with each area captured in a few minutes so the teams were not disrupted, and checked every scene for sensitive information before it went live.

The tour is now one of our bespoke 360 virtual tours: 8 rooms in three stages, 29 points of interest and 19 questions from the Institute’s scientists, in an interface designed around the Cancer Research UK brand. Below we walk through each feature and why it is there.

From patient to discovery

The tour opens with the story it tells, in three stages: From the clinic, Studying cells and tissue, and DNA and data. Every room is listed under its stage and can be opened straight from the welcome screen, or visitors can start at the beginning and follow the route. The numbers underneath, 8 rooms, 29 points of interest and 19 questions, show how much there is to explore.

A route you can see

A route bar at the top of the screen shows the three stages and the eight rooms, ticks off the rooms already visited and jumps to any of them. Each room has a card with its stage, a progress bar, a short description written by the Institute, the points of interest in that room and a Next room button that names where it leads.

Points of interest

Numbered pink circles mark the equipment and people in each room, from the endoscope in the clinic to the sequencers in the genomics lab. Choosing one turns the view towards it and opens a short explanation in plain English, with a button to the next point in the room. Points already read are ticked on the room card.

Where a picture explains more than the room can, the point includes a photograph: cells growing in a flask under a fluorescence microscope, a thin section of tissue on a slide, or tissue stained with haematoxylin and eosin.

Questions to explore

Each room has questions from the Institute’s scientists at three levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced, from “Why would a patient agree to take part in a research study?” to how cancer survival has changed over the past 40 years. Visitors have a think, then reveal the answer. It makes the tour useful for schools and outreach as well as for supporters and future staff.

Every room, by stage

“Rooms” shows a photograph of all eight rooms grouped by stage, with the number of points of interest in each, the current room marked and a count of rooms visited.

About the Institute, settings and help

“About” introduces the Institute and links to its website. The menu has a short set of settings: hide the points of interest for a clear view, reduce motion, larger text, and move your phone to look around. There is a link to copy the current view, a full screen button and a four-step guide to using the tour.

Designed for a phone as well

On a phone the header keeps the Cancer Research UK logo with buttons for rooms, questions and the menu. Room cards, points of interest and questions rise from the bottom of the screen, and the points of interest scroll sideways under the description.

Self hosted, with no platform fee

Like our other bespoke tours, this one is delivered as a self-contained website that can be linked to, embedded, opened full screen or run on a screen at events, with no annual platform subscription for the tour itself. If you would like something similar for your laboratory, hospital or research facility, take a look at our hospital and laboratory virtual tours and bespoke virtual tours, or get in touch for a quote.

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