Scientists Build Artificial Neurons from Bacteria That Communicate Like Real Brain Cells
rael-science
The Raelian Movement
Get Rael-Science on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/raelscience
Get Rael-Science on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rael_science
Scientists Build Artificial Neurons from Bacteria That Communicate Like Real Brain Cells
In a recent breakthrough, engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have created artificial neurons that operate like real ones—right down to their voltage.
Using protein nanowires grown from electricity-producing bacteria, the team has achieved a level of bio-realism never before seen in synthetic brain circuitry.
Their work, published this week in Nature Communications, marks a significant step toward a new generation of brain-inspired computers and wearable bioelectronic devices that could interact seamlessly with living cells—all while using a fraction of the power consumed by today’s artificial intelligence systems.
“Our brain processes an enormous amount of data,” lead author and graduate student in electrical and computer engineering at UMass Amherst, Shuai Fu, said in a press release. “But its power usage is very, very low, especially compared to the amount of electricity it takes to run a Large Language Model, like ChatGPT.”
The human brain is the most efficient computing machine known. It handles trillions of operations each second on roughly 20 watts of power, or the same energy used by a dim lightbulb. In contrast, running a large AI model can draw more than a million watts.
For decades, scientists have tried to mimic the brain’s efficiency using neuromorphic electronics. These systems emulate biological neural networks to achieve faster, lower-power computation. However, voltage has remained a key barrier to realizing true artificial neural networks.
Real neurons fire at ultralow voltages, around 0.1 volts. Artificial versions typically need 10 times that amount to function, making them incompatible with living systems. However, the UMass team’s device may have finally closed that gap.
“Previous versions of artificial neurons used 10 times more voltage—and 100 times more power—than the one we have created,” co-author and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Jun Yao, explained. “Ours register only 0.1 volts, which [is] about the same as the neurons in our bodies.”
At the core of this innovation is a soil microbe called Geobacter sulfurreducens. This bacterium naturally produces hair-like filaments, or protein nanowires, that conduct electricity.
These nanowires have already proven to be a goldmine for Amherst researchers. Over the past few years, his team has used them to build a variety of biologically inspired electronic devices, including a biofilm that can power itself from sweat, an “electronic nose” that can detect disease, and even a device that can harvest electricity from humid air.
Now, the same microbial material has been used to build artificial neurons that spike and fire like their biological counterparts. In the study, the researchers describe how these bio-based memristors—devices that “remember” previous electrical states—produce continuous voltage spikes matching the amplitude, energy, and frequency of real neuronal signals.
Significantly, these artificial neurons can connect directly to biological cells. In one experiment, the team linked their synthetic neuron to a living cardiac cell, which allowed the artificial circuit to interpret the cell’s electrical state in real time. “These results advance the potential for constructing bio-emulated electronics to improve bioelectronic interface and neuromorphic integration,” researchers note.
The achievement demonstrates a tangible two-way communication channel between living tissue and synthetic electronics—something long envisioned in the field of bioelectronics.
The UMass team’s low-voltage neurons could serve as the foundation for neuromorphic computers that process information more like living brains, while using far less energy and producing far less heat.
That efficiency could revolutionize AI hardware, allowing future systems to perform powerful computations without the massive energy draw that currently plagues data centers. Such devices could also make their way into wearable technology and medical implants that operate safely inside the body without damaging delicate cells.
“We currently have all kinds of wearable electronic sensing systems,” Yao noted. “But they are comparatively clunky and inefficient. Every time they sense a signal from our body, they have to electrically amplify it so that a computer can analyze it. That intermediate step of amplification increases both power consumption and the circuit’s complexity, but sensors built with our low-voltage neurons could do without any amplification at all.”
In other words, future health monitors might directly interpret brain or heart activity without external processors, ushering in a new era of seamless bioelectronic communication.
The breakthrough is particularly striking in how it ties together two previously separate frontiers: energy harvesting and neural computation.
The same Geobacter nanowires that allow these artificial neurons to fire at biological voltages can also harvest tiny amounts of electricity from ambient humidity—a phenomenon the researchers previously dubbed “Air-gen.” In principle, future devices built with this material could power themselves using moisture from the air or even the salt in human sweat.
That opens the door to self-sustaining bioelectronic systems—tiny devices that sense, compute, and power themselves much like living organisms.
The study’s technical foundation rests on a sophisticated memristor circuit capable of mimicking the “integrate-and-fire” behavior of real neurons. The researchers demonstrated that their artificial neurons not only fire at biologically realistic voltages and energies but also exhibit chemical neuromodulation, responding predictably to ions like sodium and neurotransmitters like dopamine.
Put simply, the devices “feel” and “respond” to chemical cues just as living cells do. When integrated with biological tissues, they could one day help restore damaged neural pathways or enhance sensory interfaces.
Researchers describe the work as a small but crucial step toward biohybrid electronics, a future where living and artificial systems operate in unison.
While the research is still in its early stages, the concept of merging biology and electronics is advancing rapidly. UMass Amherst’s previous success with protein nanowire neurons demonstrates that sustainable, low-power, and biocompatible computing devices are no longer science fiction.
Researchers suggest that by studying how nature optimized energy-efficient signaling, engineers can design machines that don’t merely imitate life, but work seamlessly alongside it.
Ultimately, if these bacterial-powered neurons continue to evolve, tomorrow’s computers and medical implants may “think” and “live” just like organic systems.
“The demonstrated ʻcellʼ-to-cell signal flow between the artificial neuron and a biological cell, despite being in a preliminary form, can spearhead the feasibility of creating more effective bioelectronic interfaces,” researchers conclude. “ The work suggests a promising direction toward developing bio-emulated electronics, which in turn can lead to closer interface with biosystems.”