Will future computers run on human brain cells?

Baltimore - A biocomputer powered by human brain cells could be developed within the current lifetime, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers in the US who expect such technology to exponentially expand the capabilities of modern computing and create novel fields of study.

Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution but they are reaching a ceiling, Thomas Hartung, professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins says.

He is spearheading the work as biocomputing is an enormous effort of compacting computational power and increasing its efficiency to push past our current technological limits.

For nearly two decades scientists have used tiny organoids, lab-grown tissue resembling fully grown organs, to experiment on kidneys, lungs, and other organs without resorting to human or animal testing.

More recently Hartung and colleagues at Johns Hopkins have been working with brain organoids, orbs the size of a pen dot with neurons and other features that promise to sustain basic functions like learning and remembering.

Hartung began to grow and assemble brain cells into functional organoids in 2012 using cells from human skin samples reprogrammed into an embryonic stem cell-like state. Each organoid contains about 50,000 cells, about the size of a fruit fly's nervous system. He now envisions building a futuristic computer with such brain organoids.

Computers that run on this biological hardware could in the next decade begin to alleviate energy-consumption demands of supercomputing that are becoming increasingly unsustainable, Hartung says.

Even though computers process calculations involving numbers and data faster than humans, brains are much smarter in making complex logical decisions, like telling a dog from a cat.

"The brain is still unmatched by modern computers. Frontier, the latest supercomputer in Kentucky, is a $US600 million, 630 square metre installation. Only in June of last year, it exceeded for the first time the computational capacity of a single human brain -- but using a million times more energy."

It might take decades before organoid intelligence can power a system as smart as a mouse, Hartung said. But by scaling up production of brain organoids and training them with artificial intelligence, he foresees a future where biocomputers support superior computing speed, processing power, data efficiency, and storage capabilities.

"It will take decades before we achieve the goal of something comparable to any type of computer. But if we don't start creating funding programs for this, it will be much more difficult."

Organoid intelligence could also revolutionise drug testing research for neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegeneration.

To assess the ethical implications of working with organoid intelligence, a diverse consortium of scientists, bioethicists, and members of the public have been embedded within the team.