Organoid intelligence (OI): the new frontier in biocomputing and intelligence-in-a-dish
2023
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
Recent advances in human stem cell-derived brain organoids promise to replicate critical molecular and cellular aspects of learning and memory and possibly aspects of cognition in vitro, thereby, creating a novel scientific discipline called “organoid intelligence” (OI).
By presenting a collaborative program to implement the vision of a multidisciplinary field of OI, the authors aim to establish OI as a form of genuine biological computing that harnesses brain organoids using scientific and bioengineering advances in an ethically responsible manner. Standardized, 3D, myelinated brain organoids can now be produced with high cell density and enriched levels of glial cells and gene expression critical for learning. Integrated microfluidic perfusion systems can support scalable and durable culturing, and spatiotemporal chemical signalling. Novel 3D microelectrode arrays permit high-resolution spatiotemporal electrophysiological signalling and recording to explore the capacity of brain organoids to recapitulate the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory formation and, ultimately, their computational potential. Technologies that could enable novel biocomputing models via stimulus-response training and organoid-computer interfaces are in development.
The strategic development of OI as a scientific discipline combined with an embedded ethics approach to analyse the ethical aspects raised by OI research, may help facilitate the development of OI-based biocomputing systems that allow faster decision-making, continuous learning during tasks, and greater energy and data efficiency.
Organoid intelligence (OI): the new frontier in biocomputing and intelligence-in-a-dish
Thomas Hartung
Added on: 06-10-2024
[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/science/articles/10.3389/fsci.2023.1017235/full
