Scientists Turned Shiitake Fungi Into Experimental Computer Memory

You can grow a computer component on your kitchen counter. Well, sort of. That’s the radical implication of 2025 research from The Ohio State University, where scientists used shiitake fungi to make experimental electronic devices that can remember information.

In their study, research scientist in psychiatry John LaRocco and colleagues describe a fungus-based memory system intended for brain-inspired computing.

“Being able to develop microchips that mimic actual neural activity means you don’t need a lot of power for standby or when the machine isn’t being used,” said LaRocco in an October 2025 university release. “That’s something that can be a huge potential computational and economic advantage.”

The Rise of the Mushristor

Memristors — short for “memory resistors” — are electronic components whose resistance depends on their electrical history. This makes them useful candidates for neuromorphic computing, which takes inspiration from the brain. Traditional versions are made of silicon or metal oxides, using specialized fabrication processes. The Ohio State team decided to explore whether fungi could offer an alternative. Because why not?

Specifically, they turned to shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes), known for their resilience and peculiar sensitivity to electrical stimuli. So, the researchers grew the fungi in Petri dishes filled with farro, wheat germ, and hay until the mycelium formed a dense white mat. Then they dried the samples in sunlight, rehydrated them just enough to restore conductivity, and connected them to an Arduino-powered circuit. What they got was a memristor — a sort of tiny bioelectronic brain cell — that could remember and respond to electrical patterns.

“We would connect electrical wires and probes at different points on the mushrooms because distinct parts of it have different electrical properties,” said LaRocco. “Depending on the voltage and connectivity, we were seeing different performances.”

The team reported roughly 90% accuracy in memory tests at up to 5,850 cycles per second. A separate test found a 95% match to ideal memristor behavior at 10 cycles per second and 1 volt. These percentages measure different things; neither establishes parity with commercial computer memory.

Nature’s Circuit Board

This isn’t the first time scientists have tried to merge mushrooms and machines. Mycologists and engineers have long been fascinated by mycelium, the network of filaments that makes up much of a fungus. Researchers are exploring how its electrical responses might serve both sensing and computing.

Here, “memory” refers to the material’s electrical behavior, rather than evidence that the mushrooms learned a task or thought like a brain.

But Ohio State’s work goes further: the researchers didn’t just observe electrical chatter — they trained it.

The paper describes a setup where each fungal disk acted as a node in a circuit, capable of volatile memory. Dehydration turned out to be key: drying the mushrooms made them durable while preserving their electronic traits. “We obtained experimental validation that dehydration can preserve the observed properties in a previously ‘programmed’ sample,” the team wrote in their study.

Space applications remain speculative. The experiment did not test these devices under radiation, and the paper acknowledges limited evidence directly connecting lentinan, a shiitake compound, to radiation resistance in the fungus.

And shiitake fungi come with some remarkable extras. They’re radiation-resistant, thanks in part to a compound called lentinan, which helps them endure oxidative stress. So, that opens the door to applications beyond Earth. “Shiitake has exhibited radiation resistance, suggesting its viability for aerospace applications,” the authors noted.

Beyond that, the environmental case for fungal electronics is equally compelling. Traditional semiconductor fabrication devours energy and produces electronic waste laced with heavy metals. Mycelium, by contrast, grows at room temperature and decomposes naturally.

“Society has become increasingly aware of the need to protect our environment and ensure that we preserve it for future generations,” said Qudsia Tahmina, a co-author and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State. “So that could be one of the driving factors behind new bio-friendly ideas like these.”

Accessible materials are another attraction. “Everything you’d need to start exploring fungi and computing could be as small as a compost heap and some homemade electronics, or as big as a culturing factory with pre-made templates,” LaRocco said. “All of them are viable with the resources we have in front of us now.”

Limitations and What’s Possible

Still, let’s be frank. You’re not gonna run everyday apps on mushrooms, unless those apps are in your head and the mushrooms are ‘magic’.

The researchers are realistic about the limitations. They electrically evaluated four samples, and the study lasted less than two months. The cultures varied considerably, leaving consistency, miniaturization and long-term reliability unresolved.

In a January 2026 interview with Tech Briefs, Tahmina said the team had submitted a proposal to continue the work. Simonis described the trial and error involved in finding useful electrical properties at different locations within the samples.

LaRocco also explored a different biological material in an August 2026 preprint: the bacteria-and-yeast culture used in kombucha. He reported memory behavior in a device with protective packaging that survived impact tests. But the work has not been peer reviewed, lacked a nonliving comparison system and covered only a week. It is a related experiment, not confirmation that shiitake computers are ready for everyday use.

For now, the prospect is a new way to make components, with plenty of engineering still to do. “The future of computing could be fungal,” the authors wrote.

The findings appeared in the journal PLOS One.

Transparency notice: As part of our ongoing effort to revisit earlier reporting, we’ve updated this article to clarify the findings and limitations, correct overstated claims, and add follow-up context.