{"id":87631,"date":"2025-10-08T15:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers"},"modified":"2025-10-08T16:49:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T16:49:45","slug":"scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Grow Mini Human Brains to Power Computers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>It may have its roots in science fiction, but a small number of researchers are making real progress trying to create computers out of living cells.<\/b><\/p>\n

Welcome to the weird world of biocomputing.<\/p>\n

Among those leading the way are a group of scientists in Switzerland, who I went to meet.<\/p>\n

One day, they hope we could see data centres full of “living” servers which replicate aspects of how artificial intelligence (AI) learns – and could use a fraction of the energy of current methods.<\/p>\n

That is the vision of Dr Fred Jordan, co-founder of the FinalSpark lab I visited.<\/p>\n

We are all used to the ideas of hardware and software in the computers we currently use.<\/p>\n

The somewhat eyebrow-raising term Dr Jordan and others in the field use to refer to what they are creating is “wetware”.<\/p>\n

In simple terms, it involves creating neurons which are developed into clusters called organoids, which in turn can be attached to electrodes – at which point the process of trying to use them like mini-computers can begin.<\/p>\n

Dr Jordan acknowledges that, for many people, the very concept of biocomputing is probably a bit weird.<\/p>\n

“In science fiction, people have been living with these ideas for quite a long time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When you start to say, ‘I’m going to use a neuron like a little machine’, it’s a different view of our own brain and it makes you question what we are.”<\/p>\n

For FinalSpark, the process begins with stem cells derived from human skin cells, which they buy from a clinic in Japan. The actual donors are anonymous.<\/p>\n

But, perhaps surprisingly, they’re not short of offers.<\/p>\n

“We have many people who approach us,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But we select only stem cells coming from official suppliers, because the quality of the cells are essential.”<\/p>\n

In the lab, FinalSpark’s cellular biologist Dr Flora Brozzi handed me a dish containing several small white orbs.<\/p>\n

Each little sphere is essentially a tiny, lab-grown mini-brain, made out of living stem cells which have been cultured to become clusters of neurons and supporting cells – these are the \u201corganoids\u201d.<\/p>\n

They are nowhere near the complexity of a human brain, but they have the same building blocks.<\/p>\n

After undergoing a process which can last several months, the organoids are ready to be attached to an electrode and then prompted to respond to simple keyboard commands.<\/p>\n

This is a means for electrical signals to be sent and received, with the results recorded on a normal computer hooked up to the system.<\/p>\n

It’s a simple test: you press a key which sends an electric signal through the electrodes, and if it works (it doesn’t always) you can just about see a little jump of activity on a screen in response.<\/p>\n

What’s on display is a moving graph which looks a bit like an EEG.<\/p>\n

I press the key a few times in quick succession, and the responses suddenly stop. Then there’s a short, distinctive burst of energy on the chart.<\/p>\n

When I asked what happened, Dr Jordan said there was a lot they still don’t understand about what the organoids do and why. Perhaps I annoyed them.<\/p>\n

Electrical stimulations are important first steps towards the team’s bigger goal of triggering learning in the biocomputer’s neurons so they can eventually adapt to perform tasks.<\/p>\n

“For AI, it’s always the same thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You give some input, you want some output that is used.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance, you give a picture of a cat, you want the output to say if it’s a cat”, he explained.<\/p>\n

Keeping biocomputers alive<\/b><\/p>\n

Keeping an ordinary computer going is straightforward – it just needs a power supply – but what happens with biocomputers?<\/p>\n

It’s a question scientists don’t have an answer for yet.<\/p>\n

“Organoids don’t have blood vessels,” said Simon Schultz, professor of Neurotechnology and Director of the Center for Neurotechnology at Imperial College London.<\/p>\n

“The human brain has blood vessels that permeate throughout it at multiple scales and provide nutrients to keep it working well.<\/p>\n

“We don’t yet know how to make them properly. So this is the biggest ongoing challenge.”<\/p>\n

One thing is for sure though. When we talk about a computer dying, with “wetware” that is literally the case.<\/p>\n

FinalSpark has made some progress in the last four years: its organoids can now survive for up to four months.<\/p>\n

But there are some eerie findings associated with their eventual demise.<\/p>\n

Sometimes they observe a flurry of activity from the organoids before they die \u2013 similar to the increased heart rate and brain activity which has been observed in some humans at end-of-life.<\/p>\n

“There have been a few events when we had a very fast increase in activity just the last minutes or 10s of seconds [of life],” Dr Jordan said.<\/p>\n

“I think we have recorded about 1,000 or 2,000 of these individual deaths across the past five years.”<\/p>\n

“It’s sad because we have to stop the experiment, understand the reason why it died, and then we do it again,” he said.<\/p>\n

Prof Schultz agrees with that unsentimental approach<\/p>\n

“We shouldn’t be scared of them, they’re just computers made out of a different substrate of a different material,” he said.<\/p>\n

Real-world applications<\/b><\/p>\n

FinalSpark are not the only scientists working in the biocomputing space.<\/p>\n

Australian firm Cortical Labs announced in 2022 that it had managed to get artificial neurons to play the early computer game Pong.<\/p>\n

In the US, researchers at Johns Hopkins University are also building “mini-brains” to study how they process information \u2013 but in the context of drug development for neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and autism.<\/p>\n

The hope is that AI will soon be able to supercharge this kind of work.<\/p>\n

But, for now, Dr Lena Smirnova, who leads the research at Johns Hopkins University, believes wetware is scientifically exciting – but early stage.<\/p>\n

And she said there is little prospect of it taking the place of the main material currently used for computer chips.<\/p>\n

“Biocomputing should complement \u2013 not replace \u2013 silicon AI, while also advancing disease modelling and reducing animal use,” she said.<\/p>\n

Prof Schultz agrees: “I think they won’t be able to out-compete silicon on many things, but we’ll find a niche,” he suggested.<\/p>\n

Even as the tech comes ever closer to real world applications, however, Dr Jordan is still captivated by its sci-fi origins.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always been fan of science fiction,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When you have a movie of science fiction, or a book, I always felt a bit sad because my life was not like in the book. Now I feel like I’m in the book, writing the book.”<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. It may have its roots in science fiction, but a small number of researchers are making real progress trying to create computers out of living cells. Welcome to the weird world of biocomputing. Among those leading the way are a group of scientists in Switzerland, who I went to meet. One day, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":87630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-87631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nScientists Grow Mini Human Brains to Power Computers - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It may have its roots in science fiction, but a small number of researchers are making real progress trying to create ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientists Grow Mini Human Brains to Power Computers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It may have its roots in science fiction, but a small number of researchers are making real progress trying to create ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-08T15:01:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-08T16:49:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/sm_1759929559.696528.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Scientists Grow Mini Human Brains to Power Computers\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-08T15:01:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-08T16:49:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers\"},\"wordCount\":1138,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/sm_1759929559.696528.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scientists-grow-mini-human-brains-to-power-computers\",\"name\":\"Scientists Grow Mini Human Brains to Power Computers - 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