The University of Notre Dame DU Lac is awarded a $100,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program. The grant funds research to explore the potential of using cardiac muscle cells as the basis for a recurrent (Hopfield) neural network, with the hypothesis that these "Cardiac Muscle Cell-Based Reprogrammable Bio-Oscillatory Neural Networks (CARBON)" can implement scalable and high-capacity associative memory. The research involves modifying fibroblast cell lines with optogenetically tunable ion channels to adjust their capacitive, resistive, and hybrid-RC filter characteristics for use as programmable weights in the Hopfield RNN. The project also includes interdisciplinary student mentoring and workshops examining the ethical, philosophical, and social implications of this biocomputing approach. The award supports this research from Sep 1, 2024 through Aug 31, 2028.
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