Stemlab

Education, Video Game Prototyping

Challenge
Create an innovative, educational, and interactive way to spread awareness about stem cell science.

Impact
Demonstrated the power of interdisciplinary collaboration by creating a public presentation bridging art, science, and technology. Facilitated a new alliance between tech industry experts and academic biologists aimed at inspiring a new generation of minds.

Role
Concept development, project management, and presentation.



Research strategy
The solicitation called for a creative project proposal to be presented at Stem Cell Day of Discovery: an event for middle and high school students hosted by USC and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). My goal was to develop a cross-disciplinary approach to demonstrate complex biological concepts on an approachable and engaging platform: a video game. I assembled a team of 4: a graphic designer, a creative technologist, a stem cell biologist, and myself. Stemlab is the basic concept for a video game that allows players to manipulate stem cells to build organisms, conveying the complexities of regenerative research in a quirky intellectual arena.  Because over 75% of teens have a smartphone, we chose a mobile platform.

Our team presented the Stemlab concept to demonstrate the power of integrating science, technology, & art, and  to inspire young students to do the same. We gathered initial feedback and sign-ups for later beta testing, but due to lack of funding, the project development was paused.



We shot a short video to accompany our presentation of the process and inspiration behind the game. The planaria worm exhibits an extraordinary ability to regenerate lost body parts from stem cells. We used this property to teach stem cell science and develop our vision.