Princeton University
Office of EngineeringOriginally posted April 27, 2026
Princeton researchers have combined brain cells and advanced electronics into a 3D device that can be programmed to recognize patterns using computational techniques.
Past attempts at using brain cells to do computation have relied on 2D cultures grown in a petri dish or 3D clusters that are probed and monitored from outside. The Princeton device takes a different approach, working from the inside out.
Using advanced fabrication techniques, the team created a 3D mesh made of microscopic metal wires and electrodes supported by a thin epoxy coating. Because the coating is so thin, it has just the right amount of flexibility to interface with the soft neurons that grow around it. The team used the mesh as a scaffold to culture tens of thousands of neurons into a vast 3D network that can be used to do computation.
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Princeton University researchers have developed an innovative 3D device that integrates roughly 70,000 living biological neurons with advanced electronics to perform computational tasks, such as recognizing spatial and temporal electrical pulse patterns. Published in Nature Electronics, the study details a novel "inside-out" approach where an ultra-thin, flexible epoxy-coated mesh of microscopic metal wires and electrodes serves as a scaffold for the soft brain cells to grow around, allowing scientists to record and stimulate electrical activity at an unprecedentedly fine scale. By tracking and manipulating these neural connections over a six-month period, the team successfully trained an algorithm to distinguish between different pattern inputs, demonstrating a crucial first step toward creating highly energy-efficient 3D biological neural networks that could eventually alleviate the immense power demands of modern AI while providing deeper insights into neuroscience and neurological diseases.
