Stérin et al. · Peer reviewed
Scaffolded DNA Computer ran ten molecular programs while relaxing towards a favoured equilibrium, including 25-bit addition corresponding to a 100-bit computation.
DOI 10.1038/s41586-026-10996-5
Biocomputing papers published in 2026
Peer-reviewed papers and selected preprints materially changing biological computing this year, including September work on thermodynamic DNA computation and organoid robotic control.
Cai et al. · Preprint
Brainobot uses an organoid reservoir-computing controller as a high-level decision layer for a humanoid robot, with object-grasping and laser-chasing demonstrations.
DOI 10.64898/2026.09.09.750426
Faravelli et al. · Peer reviewed
Human cortical organoids were maintained for more than five years and showed cell-type-specific transcriptional and epigenomic ageing. Relevant to substrate longevity, but not a biocomputing workload demonstration.
DOI 10.1038/s41586-026-10877-x
Liu, Philamore & Ward-Cherrier · Peer reviewed
Human forebrain organoids received electrically encoded tactile inputs; reported classification accuracy was 61% for one organoid and 83% for a three-organoid ensemble.
DOI 10.3389/frai.2026.1800219
Schottlender et al. · Preprint
Cortical Cloud experiments compared stimulation encoding strategies for closed-loop MNIST classification and highlighted neural-state monitoring as a reproducibility issue.
A cybernetic framework for synthetic biological intelligence in the era of neural tissue engineering
Sellar & Rouleau · Peer-reviewed perspective
A cybernetic framework for control, adaptation and minimal cognition in engineered neural constructs.
DOI 10.1038/s44335-026-00077-1
Zhao et al. · Peer-reviewed review
Review of planar and 3D flexible MEAs, multimodal interfaces and engineering requirements for brain-on-a-chip and early biocomputing systems.
DOI 10.3390/bios16060305
Boyd et al. · Peer-reviewed empirical ethics
Nationally representative study of how perceived consciousness, moral status and foundational distinctions shape public attitudes to embodied brain organoids.
DOI 10.1038/s41598-026-43243-y
Online supervised learning of temporal patterns in biological neural networks under feedback control
Sono et al. · Peer reviewed
Closed-loop modular cortical cultures learned to generate periodic and chaotic temporal signals.
DOI 10.1073/pnas.2521560123
Liu et al. · Peer reviewed
A 3D organoid interface achieved near-complete surface coverage with 240 individually addressable microelectrodes.
DOI 10.1038/s41551-026-01620-y
Kim et al. · Peer reviewed
Stacked mesh MEAs recorded depth-dependent activity across cerebral organoids for more than four weeks.
DOI 10.1038/s41378-026-01328-8
Robbins et al. · Peer reviewed
Closed-loop cart-pole experiments with feedback-driven plasticity.
Mritunjay, Sturm & Fu · Peer reviewed
3D flexible interface with chronic recording, stimulation and reservoir-computing experiments.
Schottlender et al. · Preprint review
Systems-engineering survey of interfaces, encoding, decoding, feedback and benchmarking.
Inclusion is selective: the paper must materially concern biological computation, the interface required to do it, or a closely related system-level method.