Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University have unveiled a revolutionary path to drive computing forward: organoid intelligence (OI), where lab-grown brain organoids act as biological hardware.
Key points
- OI revolves around using organoids, or clusters of living tissue grown from stem cells that behave similarly to organs, as biological hardware that powers algorithmic systems.
- Scientists are working to create revolutionary biocomputers where three-dimensional cultures of brain cells, called brain organoids, serve as biological hardware.
- They also called it an organoid intelligence. Brain organoids are a type of lab-grown cell-culture.
- Even though brain organoids aren’t ‘mini brains’, they share key aspects of brain function and structure such as neurons and other brain cells that are essential for cognitive functions like learning and memory.
- Whereas most cell cultures are flat, organoids have a three-dimensional structure. This increases the culture’s cell density 1,000-fold, meaning that neurons can form many more connections.
- While silicon-based computers are certainly better with numbers, brains are better at learning.
- Brains are not only superior learners, they are also more energy efficient.
- Brains also have an amazing capacity to store information, estimated at 2,500TB. According to researchers, human is reaching the physical limits of silicon computers because they cannot pack more transistors into a tiny chip. But the brain is wired completely differently. It has about 100bn neurons linked through over 1015 connection points.
- Brain has an enormous power difference compared to our current technology.
- OI’s promise goes beyond computing and into medicine. Because brain organoids can be produced from adult tissues. This means that scientists can develop personalized brain organoids from skin samples of patients suffering from neural disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. They can then run multiple tests to investigate how genetic factors, medicines, and toxins influence these conditions.
(Source: Science Daily)
