The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) has partnered with DayOne, a Singapore-headquartered global data centre developer and operator, and Cortical Labs, a Melbourne-based biological computing startup, to establish a groundbreaking Biological Data Centre prototype at the NUS Life Sciences Institute.
A Biological Data Centre represents a new generation of computing infrastructure. Instead of relying solely on conventional silicon chips, it uses “wetware” — living biological neurons derived from stem cells — to process information and support AI systems.
In contrast to traditional data centres, which depend on energy-intensive servers, biological computing offers the potential for significantly greater efficiency by harnessing brain-like organoids that can operate using only a fraction of the power required by digital computers.
This prototype marks a major milestone in DayOne and Cortical Labs’ ambition to develop Singapore’s first large-scale Biological Data Centre — and the first of its kind outside Australia.
At the heart of this effort is NUS Medicine’s expertise in neurobiology. The cells will be cultured and grown under the supervision of Rickie Patani, professor of neuroscience at NUS Medicine, director of the Neurobiology Programme at the NUS Life Sciences Institute, and chair of the Neuroscience Translational Research Programme at NUS Medicine.
The deployment of a 20-unit CL1 biological computing system—the first independently operated biologically integrated server rack in the world—brings Cortical Labs’ technology into a live research environment at NUS Medicine, hosted within infrastructure designed and supported by DayOne. It demonstrates an alternative pathway to scale AI capacity with significantly lower power intensity.
Patani said this partnership marks a genuine shift in how we think about computing and its broader scientific potential.”
“By growing living human neurons from stem cells and pairing them with rigorous engineering, we’re not only building a more efficient alternative to silicon; we’re creating a platform that can help us understand learning and adaptation at their biological source,” said Patani.
“That dual promise is what makes this collaboration sustainable and scientifically generative. It gives us a real route to accelerate drug discovery and neurological disease research, turning laboratory insight into real-world impact far faster than we could before,” he added.
Jamie Khoo, CEO of DayOne, said that Singapore has the research depth, infrastructure capability, and collaborative ecosystem to lead that exploration.
Hon Weng Chong, founder and CEO of Cortical Labs, said that the establishment of this prototype shifts the conversation from research to commercial application.
“Biological computing supplements AI in areas where data is sparse, learning from far less and adapting as conditions change. Our aim is to uncover the use cases where that advantage matters most, in areas such as drug discovery, humanoid robotics, cybersecurity and fraud detection,” he said.
“Ultimately, this is about offering a more sustainable path for the technologies humankind depends on. Singapore is the innovation hub for Asia’s data centre industry, and what we build here is the model we intend to replicate and scale globally,” he added.
