2023-12-16 06:30:09
JUAN GAERTNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBR / Getty Images/Science Photo Libra This technology, as promising as it is dangerous, should delight animal lovers
JUAN GAERTNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBR / Getty Images/Science Photo Libra
This technology, as promising as it is dangerous, should delight animal lovers
SCIENCE – How difficult it is not to let your imagination take control when discussing this technology: today there are computers mixing artificial stimulation (like an electric current for example) and human neurons. And it works even better and better; enough to open up breathtaking possibilities for research and human progress, as a study published by several researchers from American universities has just demonstrated at the beginning of December.
According to their work published in the journal Journal of nanobiotechnologyscientists have thus demonstrated that it was possible to send audio signals, here human vowels, to these neurons developed from human stem cells, then to recover their interpretation using artificial intelligence of language.
Human functions in miniature
The result is eloquent: with an efficiency of 78%, the neurons “recognized” and sorted the different vowels, gradually learning their audio signature. A new leap forward in a technology which, within a few years, could be everywhere… provided that ethical support is put in place.
To understand what this famous technology is, you need to become familiar with a somewhat barbaric term: “organoid”. These are clusters of cells cultivated in the laboratory, and whose functioning replicates that of our organs. Muscles, blood, bones… but also brain. We then speak of a “brainoid”; These are then neurons, supported by other cells artificially developed to help them function properly.
All this is of course microscopic, and we are far, both in terms of appearance and functioning, from a real human brain. “ The brain is an excessively complex organ with blood vessels, immune cells, cerebrospinal fluid… It is not a mini-brain,” says Bertrand Pain, researcher at the Stem Cell Institute of Lyon-1 University. But the closer we get, like the American experience, the more the possibility of never-before-seen computing powers opens up.
“A major ethical warning”
“No computer, even a supercomputer, can match the complexity of the brainthus explains to HuffPost François Berger, head of the Nanomedicine and brain team at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research Inserm. Even with a rudimentary installation, we could do better [comme puissance de calcul] no problem. ». With a decisive advantage: extremely low energy consumption compared to their imitation in processors.
However, there remain technical obstacles to overcome, and not the least important ones. Organoids are organic materials, which means you have to grow them (several days at this point), feed them, and then replace them as they die. In short, a whole life cycle far removed from our silicon and copper machines. And that’s the problem: with their development comes a very large-scale ethical debate.
“From the moment we are going to upgrade the system, vascularize it… Of course there is a major ethical warning”, confirms François Berger. Imagine: it’s 2030, and a hybrid computer, with a complex system of neurons at its heart, interacts with its user using credible AI, like chatGPT. Would it not then be legitimate to question the definition of living things? “The problem of knowing if there is a person next to me then becomes complicated”points out the researcher, who evokes a “international ethical problem”like reproductive cloning.
A decisive step to abandon animal testing
While waiting for this thorny debate, the usefulness of organoids is being demonstrated with such force that it will be difficult, in the name of principles, to reject their use. First for their effectiveness in the field of medical research, “a fantastic opportunity”. Today, laboratories are working to create “pathological avatars”, for example tumor cells (also called tumoroids) capable of accelerating research at full speed.
Consequence of this enthusiasm around organoids, a virtuous effect on animal suffering. Indeed, stem cells grown in laboratories mean that we can do without laboratory tests on animals. “Currently, tumoroids and other organoids predict better than animal models”supports François Berger.
In short, this means that medical research, rather than using mice, primates or other guinea pigs to experiment with the effects of a treatment in development, could transfer these attempts entirely to these small packets of cells. And at the same time avoid animal suffering that is increasingly unbearable for public opinion.
This use is already developing around the world, even if much remains to be done to systematize this revolution in the way of testing. Journals, for example, often only validate studies if they have been tested on animals: a practice which, as the journal explained Nature a pioneer in organoid work, will have to change.
Also see on Le HuffPost :
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