Artificial Biological Brain

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Researchers at Pittsburgh University managed to reproduce the brain's electrical impulses onto models made from living brain cells. The work was conducted by 2011 Pittsburgh graduate Ashwin Vishwanathan. He co-authored a paper for "Lab on a Chip", the jurnal of the Royal Society of Chemistry with Zeringue and Guo-Qiang Bi, a neurological professor at Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

These ring shaped micro-brains are an interesting development both for scientists and for people working in other areas. The Pitt team stamped adhesive proteins onto silicon discs and after that, hippocampus cells from embryonic rats were fused to the proteins. We are far in my opinion from seeing "external brains" at the local pharmacy, but research conducted by the Pittsburgh team will greatly help our understanding of the inner workings of the brain and ultimately will help us cure various diseases and, why not, improve our minds.

Source: http://www.news.pitt.edu/news/Zeringue-memory-cell-networks