What is Nanome v2?

Nanome v2 is a professional-grade molecular visualisation and design platform for Meta Quest — the only VR tool of its kind used simultaneously by pharmaceutical R&D teams making billion-dollar drug discovery decisions and by university students learning protein structure for the first time. It is free to download on Meta Quest, developed by Nanome Inc. (San Diego), and as of v2.4.0 in January 2026 has transitioned from closed beta to early access on the Meta Quest Store.

The core concept is deceptively simple: put scientists and students inside the molecules they are studying. Load a protein from the RCSB Protein Data Bank, shrink it into your hands or grow it to room-scale, rotate it to inspect the binding pocket, mutate a residue and watch the geometry change in real time — all with colleagues standing next to you in the same virtual space, their pointers visible on the same structural features. This is molecular modelling as a spatial, physical, collaborative activity rather than a 2D screen interaction.

The platform has been adopted by pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide and is described by its founder as building a "real-life JARVIS for scientists." In academia, it represents a significant leap beyond the physical molecular models invented by August Wilhelm von Hofmann in the 1860s — making molecular biology and organic chemistry immersive and interactive rather than static and symbolic.

What Can You Do in Nanome?

What Does the Research Show?

Nanome is one of the few VR science education tools with genuine peer-reviewed classroom research behind it. Researchers at Suffolk University in Boston published a study in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2025) documenting their approach to using Nanome in undergraduate biochemistry and molecular biology courses.

School & University Curriculum Value

Nanome's primary educational sweet spot is A-Level and university-level chemistry and biology. At A-Level, molecular structure, bonding, protein function and enzyme interactions are all part of the specification, and Nanome makes these tangible in a way that no 2D diagram can. At university level it is a genuinely research-grade tool — the same platform used by pharmaceutical companies — making it uniquely motivating for science undergraduates. At GCSE level, the software is accessible for exploring basic molecular structures and introducing 3D molecular thinking, though the full feature set will exceed most GCSE students' immediate needs. Ease of use is rated 65% — the built-in tutorial covers the basics, but the software has a genuine learning curve and requires teacher orientation before classroom use. The Suffolk University exercises (freely available) provide an excellent ready-made curriculum structure for first deployments.

Berkmen et al. (2025)
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education

5 classroom exercises covering protein structure, active sites, amino acid chirality and ligand-enzyme interactions. Instructor resources freely available.