Hongwei Cai (蔡虹威)
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About me
I build intelligent biohybrid organoid systems for precision medicine and AI computing.
Hello, there! I am Hongwei Cai, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington.
My research develops intelligent biomedical systems at the intersection of human organoids, microfluidics, bioelectronics, sensors, and artificial intelligence, toward translational precision medicine and sustainable biohybrid computing.
My work has been published in journals such as Nature Electronics, Cell Stem Cell, Nature Communications, PNAS, Bioactive Materials, Biofabrication, Lab on a Chip, etc.
I earned my Ph.D. in Intelligent Systems Engineering from Indiana University Bloomington in 2025, under the mentorship of Prof. Feng Guo. I also hold a B.S. from Nanjing University.
Research Interests
Intelligent human organoid microphysiological systems
Organoid neural interface and biohybrid intelligence
AI-enabled biomedical devices for precision medicine and healthcare
Representative work
H. Cai, C. Tian, L. Chen, Y. Yang, A. X. Sun, K. McCracken, J. Tchieu, M. Gu, K. Mackie, and F. Guo*. “Vascular network-inspired diffusible scaffolds for engineering functional midbrain organoids.” Cell Stem Cell, 32(5):824-837.e825, 2025.
- Also see “Mind over scaffold: Vascular network-inspired scaffolds for functionally mature neural organoids”, Cell Biomaterials, 2025, 1(4).
H. Cai, Z. Ao, C. Tian, Z. Wu, H. Liu, J. Tchieu, M. Gu, K. Mackie, and F. Guo*. “Brain organoid reservoir computing for artificial intelligence.” Nature Electronics, 6:1032-1039, 2023.
- Also see “Reservoir computing with brain organoids”, Nature Electronics, 2023, 6:943-944.
This work was reported by over 140 media outlets worldwide, ranked in the top 1% attention at Nature Electronics, including:
- Nature News: “‘Biocomputer’ combines lab-grown brain tissue with electronic hardware”
- MIT Technology Review: “Human brain cells hooked up to a chip can do speech recognition”
- GEN: “Brainoware: Organoid Neural Networks Inspire Brain-AI Hardware”
- Daily Mail Online: “Human brain ‘organoid’ hybrid computers can be trained to learn”
- ScienceAlert: “Human Brain Cells on a Chip Can Recognize Speech And Do Simple Math”
- The Nation: “‘Brainoware’: Brain Cells Fused With AI Could Recognize Voices”
Updates
Feb.2025 - My manuscript entitled “Vascular network-inspired diffusible scaffolds for engineering functional mid-brain organoids” has been accepted by Cell Stem Cell.
See the full list at Publication, my Patents, Awards & Service, or view my CV.