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Article by: Josephine Ong Seen Yee
Cerebral Organoids-- What is it?
Cerebral Organoids, also known as brain organoids, are tiny lab-grown “brains” that are useful for neuroscientists to gain a better understanding of the complex organ-- how it develops and how it can degenerate. Created by culturing pluripotent stem cells, these tiny brains can be kept “alive” in the lab for a long time! Neural organoids include various nerve cell types and possess anatomical characteristics resembling different parts of the nervous system. Some resemble neurons found in the cortex, while others simulate structures like the retina, spinal cord, thalamus, and hippocampus. Additionally, some organoids develop without specific guidance, containing a mix of both neural and non-neural cells!
How can Neural Organoids contribute to the tech world..??
You may ask, why is there a need to infuse these cerebral organoids into the technological world?? Understandably, the idea of using a tiny, lab-grown brain to power a computer we use daily sounds creepy and crosses the blurry lines of ethics when it comes to biology. But the problem is, what we have now-- Artificial Intelligence (AI) requires a substantial amount of energy to train and run. The human brain, on the other hand, needs only a minuscule amount of 20W!
By wiring living brain organoids into silicon chips, a new ingenious invention was created--
biocomputers! The human brain communicates internally and with the body primarily via electrical signals. Before our brains can process them, sights, sounds, and sensations are transformed into electrical pulses. This characteristic makes brain tissue well-suited for integration with silicon chips. These small spheres of brain tissue are housed in incubators at temperatures similar to that of the human body and are provided with water and nutrients, shielded from bacterial or viral threats, and connected to an electrical circuit through a network of minute electrodes! These electrodes can send pulses to the organoids and also measure their responses. Neurons are always on the hunt for patterns, like little detectives looking for clues and keeping things in order: which we can take advantage of for our computers!
These brain organoid-silicon chips have demonstrated startlingly efficient learning abilities, drawing interest and funds from all over the world. Sooner or later, the technology will replace our current computers and AI models, sparking a new era of human technology.
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