--- title: "Researchers Just Got Funding to Grow a Neural Network in a Petri Dish" description: "## BRAIN IN A DISH" date: "2018-09-14" modified: "2018-09-14" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/neural-network-petri-dish" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "national science foundation" - "neural network" - "optogenetics" - "the digest" --- # Researchers Just Got Funding to Grow a Neural Network in a Petri Dish ![]() *\Image: Emily Cho\* ## BRAIN IN A DISH Will the computers of the future be built in factories as they are today, or will they be grown in labs like cell cultures? That's the question posed by an interdisciplinary team of biologists and computer engineers who [won a $500,000 grant this week]() from the National Science Foundation. The researchers' plan: to develop a computer made out of living cells and program it to perform computational tasks. ## NEURAL NETWORK Details about the upcoming project are scant. The grant winners say they will use living cells (they haven't said what type) to construct a neural network. They say they'll use optogenetics, a biological technique that uses light to control cells, to train the system to recognize handwritten digits. They say the hybrid project could lead to better understandings of both computers and organic brains. How all these pieces will fit together is really anyone's guess at this point. "We hope that neuron scientists will be able to use this technology as a testbed for studying the human brain," said Yevgeny Berdichevsky, a professor of bioengineering at Lehigh University who's working on the project, in [a press release](). ## I HAVE NO MOUTH, AND I MUST SCREAM When scientists at the University of Pennsylvania unveiled [lab-grown globules]() of human brain tissue, it prompted an outcry from ethicists who worried that the "minibrains" could experience consciousness as they became more complex. It's not yet clear whether this project will raise similar concerns. But the work does suggest a radically different vision of future computing technology in which everything from buildings to computers could be [grown from seeds](), like flowers. **READ MORE:** Growing computers in petri dishes \[[Lehigh University]()\] ***More on lab-grown brains: [A Brain in a Dish: 3D Mini-Brains Prove to Be Remarkably Accurate]()*** ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()