Iran develops lab-grown artificial brain using human neurons

Iran has successfully developed a laboratory-scale artificial brain composed of living human neurons capable of forming learning neural networks, according to a senior science official.

Ataollah Pour-Abbasi, secretary of the Cognitive Sciences and Technologies Development Taskforce, told Mehr News Agency that Iranian researchers have mastered the technology required to culture nerve cells outside the human body, enabling them to establish synaptic connections and create networks capable of learning.

"This achievement lays the groundwork for the development of brain cell-based computer processors," Pour-Abbasi said, noting that a domestic knowledge-based company has already produced an experimental prototype.

He said the emerging technology could dramatically increase processing speed while reducing energy consumption by as much as one million times compared with conventional silicon-based processors.

According to Pour-Abbasi, these advantages have turned biological processors into a strategic priority worldwide, driving global efforts to develop next-generation computing technologies.

Although commercial applications remain some way off, he emphasized that Iran has now acquired the complete technical expertise needed to develop the technology domestically.

"Our country is advancing alongside leading nations in acquiring this technological capability," he said.

Known as organoid intelligence or biological computing, the technology employs living human neurons to create computational systems that emulate the brain's ability to process information in parallel while consuming minimal amounts of energy.