Biocomputing

Biological components in computers.

Researchers Flesh Out Biocomputing

By Samuel Greengard, Commissioned    by CACM Staff, May 2, 2023

Researchers suggest it’s time to create a new type of computer that uses biological components, which they believe could outperform electronic computers in certain applications while using significantly less electricity.

Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Silicon-based computing has always delivered trade-offs. While these systems perform many tasks that are completely out of reach for human beings, they cannot think and behave like people. As a result, even the most advanced systems cannot do things that are relatively simple for humans.

Biocomputing may change all of this. The field, which draws intelligence from actual brain cells, is advancing rapidly. The ability to place hundreds of thousands, or even millions of stem cells into machines that could deliver human-like cognition, could transform fields as diverse as agriculture, biomedicine, cybersecurity and transportation.

"The dream of intelligence in a dish has been around for about 20 years," says Thomas Hartung, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Constance in Germany. "We are now reaching a point where it's possible to use brain organoids for certain types of computing tasks."

The ability for biocomputers to interact with sensors and conventional silicon computers could also usher in capabilities that exceed the limitations of either type of device today. Yet biocomputing presents serious ethical concerns, including the possibility the technology could be misused or abused, or at some point collections of cells could achieve sentience.

Silicon Meets Neurons

Biocomputing, once a fantastical and even implausible idea, is now on the fast track to scientific reality. In February, an international group of researchers headed by Hartung presented an academic paper in the Journal Frontiers of Science outlining a path to organoid intelligence and biocomputing.

Thanks to advances in cultivating human stem cell-derived organoids—bioengineered groups of cells—researchers can construct a machine adapted to biologically-based computing. They connect electrodes to a group of DNA and RNA cells, typically held in an environmentally stable container, and then train the cells to focus on tasks using silicon-based reinforcement learning methods.

The potential use-cases for biocomputing systems are remarkably broad—and the technology's ultra-low energy demands are appealing. "Biocomputing could make a major impact in almost every field," says Alysson R. Muotri, a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Cellular & Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the university's Stem Cell Program.

Among the possible applications for biocomputing: drug design, gene therapy, facial recognition, and smart systems that incorporate human thinking. The cells, which have the ability to self-organize and repair themselves, could lead to new types of software and systems. "Basically, anything that requires human intuition would benefit," Muotri says.

Biocomputing devices also could incorporate brain cells from other animals that display specialized characteristics, whether it's the hearing of a dog or the electrosensitive perception of a shark. This feature could lead to systems better equipped to sniff out diseases and ambient environmental risks, or perhaps to sense things in the dark or behind other objects.

Hartung believes the technology could also aid in optimizing existing silicon-based computing architectures, including neuromorphic computing, and usher in hybrid silicon-bio systems that combine the best elements of each. "These computers could be adept at making intuitive decisions based on incomplete datasets," he explains.

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