All Aboard Bloodstream Submarine—Now Playing in the Planetarium

At the Lawrence Hall of Science, a different kind of Planetarium program is underway–one that explores inner space rather than outer space.

Instead of launching audiences into distant galaxies, Bloodstream Submarine shrinks visitors down to microscopic size and sends them deep inside the human body. In this 30-minute immersive presentation, audiences board a tiny submarine and explore the bloodstream of a real patient, Victoria Gray — the first person with sickle cell disease to be treated with CRISPR. Along the way, visitors learn how red blood cells function, what happens when they deform, and how scientists are working to fix the problem at the genetic level.

But the show is more than just a science adventure. It’s part of a larger initiative to educate the public about one of the most transformative technologies in modern medicine: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, or CRISPR.

Developed in part at UC Berkeley by Nobel Laureate Dr. Jennifer Doudna, CRISPR is a powerful gene-editing tool with the potential to cure genetic diseases, including sickle cell disease. Yet despite its growing impact, surveys show that many people have never heard of CRISPR — let alone understand how it works.

That gap in public awareness became a driving force behind the development of Bloodstream Submarine.

“Our main goal is to give the general public a basic understanding of how CRISPR works and what it can do, so that people are prepared to consider and discuss how this technology should or shouldn’t be used,” said Lee Bishop, the Biotechnology Lead at The Lawrence. “In surveys of people who participated in our CRISPR planetarium shows, over a quarter of people had never even heard of CRISPR. So, the need is out there to be met.”

The show is adapted from a virtual reality experience called CRISPR-VR, originally developed as a standalone tool for individual use. Now reimagined for the planetarium, it uses vivid visuals to depict how sickle-shaped cells block blood vessels, what causes their abnormal structure, and how gene editing seems to have cured Victoria’s disease. Entire audiences can experience the simulation together, and educators have begun incorporating video exports into classrooms, presentations, and high school science curricula.

Centering the story on a real patient helps translate the science into a narrative that’s easier for audiences — especially younger ones — to follow and understand.

“Rather than diving into an abstract bloodstream, we’re diving into our new friend Victoria’s bloodstream,” said Ellen Torres Thompson, The Lawrence’s Planetarium Specialist and the show’s script co-writer. “We’re working together to treat her sickle cell disease. The element of imaginative play here is particularly intended to engage early childhood learners.”

One of her favorite moments comes when hemoglobin molecules first appear on screen. “I like to ask the audience, ‘Do these molecules remind you of anything?’ and almost every time, a kid yells out, ‘Nerd gummy clusters!’”  Ellen ended up adding an image of the candy to the show, and the reaction, she said, is instant. “Kids go wild with laughter and a sense of validation — and I suspect they remember what hemoglobin’s function is.”

The show itself is the result of a partnership that began years earlier. The CRISPR VR project grew out of a collaboration between the Lawrence Hall of Science, Dr. Doudna’s Innovative Genomics Institute, and Oakland-based educational technology company Dynamoid. The groups first connected in 2018, just as The Lawrence was launching its biotechnology education program. 

“We are partnering with them to support them bringing these real research stories into the classroom or into science centers,” Bishop said. “We all worked together to design a VR storyline, which was relatively easy to bring into the planetarium, since VR and planetaria are quite similar in terms of the 3D data needed.”

Looking ahead, the team hopes Bloodstream Submarine will continue to serve as a gateway for audiences to learn not only about CRISPR, but about how science is applied in the real world. For now, the show invites audiences of all ages to explore the future of medicine—one red blood cell at a time. Catch Bloodstream Submarine on weekends and holidays before it goes away for the summer!