Biomolecular engineer receives $1.5M to build energy-efficient computer out of yeast cells https://hub.jhu.edu/2018/07/17/yeast-computers-biomolecular-engineering/

1. RESEARCH FUNDING
Biomolecular engineer receives $1.5M to build energy-
e cient computer out of yeast cells
Team led by Rebecca Schulman hopes to set a new direction for the future of computers, with the human
brain and other biological materials as inspiration

2. Team aims to develop yeast cells that can collectively emulate neural networks
IMAGE : GETTY IMAGES

3. Rachel Wallach /  Jul 17
If you built the largest, most powerful computer currently feasible, it would have about the same number of transistors as there are
synapses in the brain of a 3-year-old child. It would also be slightly larger than a tennis court, and consume 10 times the power needed
by the preschooler's brain.
All of which means that it might be time to look in a new direction for the next generation of computers, and the power and efficiency of
the brain as a computing device suggests that it's worth exploring biology as an inspiration, says Rebecca Schulman, an assistant
professor in Johns Hopkins University's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The National Science Foundation,
which has a funding stream directed toward innovative biology-based information technologies, agrees with her, and awarded Schulman
and three colleagues $1.5 million to design a computing system based on living cells.
"Our thought was that people have started programming cells, and now it is possible to create whole new genomes. What if we start
over and engineer cultured cells like yeast, where the goal is to make them computing units?" asks Schulman, who will serve as
principal investigator.
The grant, made in partnership with the Semiconductor Research Corporation, is designed to facilitate ultra-low-energy computing,
storage, and signal processing systems built on developments in the fields of biology, chemistry, and engineering. Schulman's team will
explore the creation of a new generation of dense, inexpensive, and highly energy-efficient computers made of large, three-dimensional
yeast cell colonies grown from simple raw materials. Additional researchers are Joshua Vogelstein from the Johns Hopkins Department
of Biomedical Engineering, Eric Klavins from the University of Washington, and Andrew Ellington from the University of Texas at
Austin.
Previous related efforts have focused on using neurons for computing, but programming neurons is difficult and researchers have yet to
successfully direct their information processing. Easy-to-grow cells like yeast solve the issue of programmability but present other
challenges: they are prone to error and they divide and die, making it difficult to build a reliable computing architecture.
The team proposes to combine the advantages of neurons—which can process information redundantly, minimizing communication
errors—with those offered by yeast cells, which can grow efficiently in culture and be easily reconfigured using modern genome
engineering techniques. Their goal is to develop "yeastons," which are Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells that can collectively emulate
neural networks. The networks will be designed to tolerate the variability found in single-cell biomolecular information processing, and
the computing architectures will grow organically, so no patterning or higher order spatial organization will be required.
 MEDIA INQUIRIES
6
TO BUILD ENERGY-EFFICIENT COMPUTERS, THE TEAM PROPOSES TO COMBINE THE ADVANTAGES OF
NEURONS WITH THOSE OFFERED BY YEAST CELLS, WHICH CAN GROW EFFICIENTLY IN CULTURE AND
BE EASILY RECONFIGURED USING MODERN GENOME ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES.

4. The researchers expect to show that a large enough colony of yeastons could
perform arbitrarily complex computations. Models offered by neuroscience will
provide design principles for assembling robust yeaston networks and scaling laws
for yeaston computing. Because the architectures will be modeled on the brain,
where computation and memory are distributed across billions of neurons, the
overall computing process will stand up to the variability and flux in individual
cells' behavior, replication, and death.
The project is expected to provide an example of very low-power computing: A
yeaston-powered computer could one day offer the functions of a supercomputer
while occupying only a fraction of the space. The project will also add to
fundamental knowledge about intercellular coordination and how collective
intercellular communication processes can allow for coordinated behavior.
Posted in Science+Technology
Tagged chemical engineering, biomolecular engineering, computers
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Rebecca Schulman

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