{"id":32798,"date":"2023-03-06T12:25:22","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T06:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=32798"},"modified":"2025-04-19T16:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T10:40:06","slug":"what-are-bio-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-are-bio-computers\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Bio-computers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the Premise of this Bio-computer Technology?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the new \u2018Bio-computer\u2019?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the Opportunities for \u2018Bio-computers\u2019?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Are \u2018Bio-computers\u2019 Ready for Commercial Use?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Scientists at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) recently outlined a plan for a potentially revolutionary new area of research called \u201c<strong>organoid intelligence<\/strong>\u201d, which aims to create \u201c<strong>biocomputers<\/strong>\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the Premise of this Bio-computer Technology?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Traditionally, researchers have used <strong>rat brains<\/strong> to investigate various human neurological disorders.<\/li>\n<li>However, there are<strong> several differences<\/strong> in structure, function and cognitive capacities of rodents and humans.<\/li>\n<li>In a quest to develop systems that are more relevant to humans, s<strong>cientists are building 3D cultures of brain tissue in the lab<\/strong>, also called <u>brain organoids<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>These \u201cmini-brains\u201d, built using human stem cells, however,<strong> have certain limitations &#8211;<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>No input sensory inputs (touch, smell, vision, etc.)\/output connection<\/li>\n<li>No blood circulation<\/li>\n<li>When inserted in a rat shows different behavioural interpretation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the new \u2018Bio-computer\u2019?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The JHU researchers\u2019 scheme <strong>will combine brain organoids <\/strong>(with multiple electrodes similar to those used to take EEG readings from the brain)<strong> with modern computing methods <\/strong>(machine learning) to create \u201cbio-computers\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>These brain cultures (organoids) grown in the lab are <strong>coupled to real-world sensors and input\/output devices<\/strong> to develop into the complex organ.<\/li>\n<li>The scientists were able to <strong>grow human neurons<\/strong> on top of a microelectrode array that could both record and stimulate these neurons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/Hjon5Cjlorqm1GVNLmm9Tlr8yt6KfdEEEbvFd1f_UmgigfnOein8EHIpUPSdWjXEawYivimT5qDM7ocnEL3I93X2l2fgtfs2ByE9Y2UD7QcGHZ21ErZ6wUZGPEMMe1NpWEtMLfQaAKBB\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: About Bio-computer<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the Opportunities for \u2018Bio-computers\u2019?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>While human brains are slower than computers (say, simple arithmetic), <strong>they outshine machines at processing complex information.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Comparing the data on brain structure, connections, and signalling between \u2018healthy\u2019 and \u2018patient-derived\u2019 organoids <strong>can reveal the biological basis of human cognition, learning, and memory.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They could also help decode the pathology of and drug development for devastating neurodevelopmental and degenerative diseases such as<strong> Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Are \u2018Bio-computers\u2019 Ready for Commercial Use?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Currently, brain organoids have a diameter of less than 1 mm and have fewer than 100,000 cells, which make it <strong>roughly three-millionth the size of an actual human brain<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>So scaling up the brain organoid is key to improving its computing capacity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Researchers will also have to <strong>develop microfluidic systems <\/strong>to transport oxygen and nutrients, and remove waste products.<\/li>\n<li>They will also need to <strong>develop and use advanced analytical techniques <\/strong>to correlate the structural and functional changes in the brain organoids to the various output variables.<\/li>\n<li>The first, <strong>very-primitive forms of learning<\/strong> are already around, and the challenge is now to establish long-term memory, which may take more time.<\/li>\n<li>There is also a proposal to have an ethics team to parallelly identify, discuss, and analyse <strong>ethical issues<\/strong> as they arise in the course of this work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><strong>Q1) What is the significance of creating a bio-computer?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Bio-computers are created by combining brain organoids with modern computing methods (machine learning) to create \u201cbio-computers\u201d. They can reveal the biological basis of human cognition, learning, and memory and could also help decode diseases such as Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/explained-what-are-bio-computers-and-what-can-they-tell-us-about-the-human-brain\/article66583002.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Explained | What are \u2018bio-computers\u2019 and what can they tell us about the human brain?<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Video:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Dgihhl2SR20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Dgihhl2SR20<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bio-computers are created when brain organoids combine with modern computing methods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}