Scaling of automated computing and engineering with cellular substrates: Illinois as the world-reference

Mattia Gazzola (MechSE)
Taher Saif and Prashant Mehta (MechSE)
Nancy Amato (SSCDS)
Hyun Joon Kong (ChBE)
Lav Varshney (ECE)
Howard Gritton (Comparative Biosciences)

Research Problem
The advancement of bio-hybrid computing/engineering, as well as other in vitro applications such as disease modeling, drug screening, neuroscience, or aging research, relies heavily on the multimodal interaction and manipulation of cellular substrates. Because biology is statistical in nature, there is a need for systems that can collect large volumes of data, accommodate diverse experimental setups, and support scalable testing and analysis capabilities to ensure the reliability and generalizability of findings.

Problem Statement. Current systems are expensive, labor-intensive, non-scalable, non-customizable, low-throughput, and require a considerable amount of expertise and cell culture training. We want to tackle these problems by developing a pipeline of scalable, high-throughput systems, and gradually build up to a national center level.

Vision
Our long-term vision is to establish Illinois as the leading scientific, technological & commercialization hub for computing and engineering with living neurons, and cellular substrates more generally, at scale. Our envisioned, automated facilities will allow users to remotely interact with arrays of cellular substrates using multi-modal inputs (optical, electrical, and/or chemical stimulation) and multi-modal outputs (electrophysiology and optical microscopy), thereby eliminating the need for direct wet lab work.

Larger Impact
The ability to harness neural and other cellular systems for computing and engineering, to take advantage of their intrinsic self-organization properties, compactness, energy efficiency, plasticity, versatility, and emergent dynamics, will have deep ramifications in computer science, robotics, control, neuroscience, and medicine. We outline here a comprehensive multi-year plan to establish UIUC as the world-leader in this new domain.