'CraftCells' is a project that lets you explore the inside of a cell faithfully recreated in Minecraft
A research team from the University of Illinois Center for Quantitative Cell Biology (QCB) has announced that they have created a world called ' CraftCells ' in Minecraft, a sandbox game where you can create and simulate detailed models of cells. In CraftCells, many molecules, including water, are not visualized, but proteins, DNA, organelles, cell membranes, etc. are modeled, and each can be displayed or hidden.
Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents – News Bureau
Visualizing Cell Structures with Minecraft in: The Biophysicist Ahead of Print | The Biophysicist
https://thebiophysicist.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/biop/aop/article-10.35459-tbp.2024.000275/article-10.35459-tbp.2024.000275.xml
Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-minecraft-players-explore-cells-contents.html
Using high-resolution microscopy data, the team has recently built models in Minecraft of yeast, human epithelial cells, breast cells and cancerous breast cells, all at a scale that is adjusted to best visualize the cells, with individual blocks ranging in size from 1 nanometre to 100 nanometres.
In addition, CraftCells can be viewed in 3D using a VR headset.
The research team commented, 'CraftCells allows researchers and students of all ages to navigate inside cells, break through the membranes of organelles to see inside, and walk around the cytoplasm to see how the various structures in the cell are distributed.'
Below is a video of a visit to a yeast cell recreated in the world of Minecraft. You can destroy the cell membrane, which is recreated with glass blocks, and take a closer look inside.
Below are breast cells recreated by CraftCells.
Normal Breast Cell - YouTube
Normal breast cells, top, and cancerous breast cells, as seen by CraftCells. Cancerous breast cells tend to be elongated and key-shaped, with larger nucleosomes (purple).
The movie below shows a coaster moving between cells that have been damaged by the tissue damage caused by active oxygen. The red parts are cytoplasmic proteins, and the gold parts are DNA. According to the research team, in the future they plan to develop a system that can shoot breast cancer cells with a laser weapon, mimicking a treatment called laser ablation.
Rollercoaster - YouTube
'We might be able to see how targeted drugs get into human cells, or what happens when yeast cells produce ethanol,' said Tianyu Wu, lead author of the study. 'CraftCells gives us an easier way to understand these biological processes.'
CraftCells is free to use and is compatible with Minecraft Java Edition, Bedrock, and Education Edition. The source code is hosted on GitHub, and released programs can be downloaded from GitHub.
GitHub - Luthey-Schulten-Lab/CraftCells: Visualizing Cell Structures with Minecraft
https://github.com/Luthey-Schulten-Lab/CraftCells
Related Posts:
