[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":349},["ShallowReactive",2],{"header":3,"footer":26,"footer-cities":54,"content-\u002Fnews\u002Fuc-santa-cruz-demos-ai-with-brain-organoids-with-possible-uses-in-valley-care":235},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":10,"extension":13,"links":14,"meta":20,"navigation":21,"path":22,"seo":23,"stem":24,"__hash__":25},"header\u002Fheader.md","Central Valley AI",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":9},"minimark",[],{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":12},"",2,[],"md",[15],{"label":16,"to":17,"icon":19},"News",{"path":18},"\u002Fnews\u002F","mdi-newspaper-variant-outline",{},true,"\u002Fheader",{"title":5,"description":10},"header","ceT4J-WxxOBdbhRC-UD3fo0Npu7vWt2o2B9b_LURPmE",{"id":27,"title":28,"body":29,"copyright":33,"description":10,"developedBy":34,"extension":13,"links":41,"meta":49,"navigation":21,"path":50,"seo":51,"stem":52,"__hash__":53},"footer\u002Ffooter.md","Footer",{"type":7,"value":30,"toc":31},[],{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":32},[],"© {year} All rights reserved.",{"label":35,"link":36},"Developed by",{"label":37,"to":38,"target":39,"logo":40},"Kaweah Tech","https:\u002F\u002Fkaweah.tech","_blank","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.kaweah.tech\u002Flogo-black-on-transparent-tight.svg",[42,43,46],{"label":16,"to":18},{"label":44,"to":45},"About","\u002Fabout\u002F",{"label":47,"to":48},"Privacy Policy","\u002Fprivacy-policy\u002F",{},"\u002Ffooter",{"description":10},"footer","Ras2AGS8Wuda4aBPrbAbOivaxIsAoDbo9SNCA0w554g",[55,85,123,154,181,208],{"id":56,"title":57,"body":58,"county":77,"description":10,"extension":13,"intro":78,"meta":79,"navigation":21,"path":80,"seo":81,"stem":82,"tag":83,"__hash__":84},"cities\u002Fcities\u002Fbakersfield.md","Bakersfield",{"type":7,"value":59,"toc":74},[60,65],[61,62,64],"h2",{"id":63},"ai-in-bakersfield","AI in Bakersfield",[66,67,68,69,73],"p",{},"Bakersfield's AI conversation sits at the intersection of municipal government, the ",[70,71,72],"strong",{},"California State University Bakersfield"," community, and the energy and ag operators that drive Kern County's economy. The city was an early mover on AI-assisted permitting and has been a recurring backdrop for parent- and teacher-led debates about classroom AI use. Articles below follow specific Bakersfield initiatives, public-meeting decisions, and Kern County workforce stories — and how they reflect national AI trends from a regional vantage point.",{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":75},[76],{"id":63,"depth":11,"text":64},"Kern County","Bakersfield and the surrounding Kern County are home to some of the most concrete AI-in-government experiments in the Central Valley, from instant municipal permitting to school-district debates about classroom AI. Coverage on this page tracks how AI is reshaping public services, education, and the energy and agriculture economies that dominate the region.",{},"\u002Fcities\u002Fbakersfield",{"title":57,"description":10},"cities\u002Fbakersfield","bakersfield","ozFL4HvDA_g7UrRE1mHbKqcS-vDLwbiH9JWVh3rB2Ac",{"id":86,"title":87,"body":88,"county":115,"description":10,"extension":13,"intro":116,"meta":117,"navigation":21,"path":118,"seo":119,"stem":120,"tag":121,"__hash__":122},"cities\u002Fcities\u002Ffresno.md","Fresno",{"type":7,"value":89,"toc":112},[90,94,109],[61,91,93],{"id":92},"ai-in-fresno","AI in Fresno",[66,95,96,97,100,101,104,105,108],{},"Fresno's AI story spans several distinct ecosystems. ",[70,98,99],{},"Fresno State"," and the ",[70,102,103],{},"California State University"," system anchor a workforce-readiness push, while local ",[70,106,107],{},"Fresno Unified School District"," debates around responsible use have made the city a recurring reference point in California's K-12 AI conversation. The city's economic base in agriculture, healthcare, and public services means most AI adoption stories here are about applied uses rather than model development — a different posture than coastal tech hubs but arguably more consequential for the people living here.",[66,110,111],{},"Use the articles below to follow how AI is showing up in Fresno-area institutions and businesses.",{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":113},[114],{"id":92,"depth":11,"text":93},"Fresno County","Fresno is the largest city in California's Central Valley and the regional center for AI adoption across agriculture, healthcare, higher education, and small business. Coverage on this page tracks how AI is being applied — and contested — in and around the city of Fresno and Fresno County.",{},"\u002Fcities\u002Ffresno",{"title":87,"description":10},"cities\u002Ffresno","fresno","gOL2xk8y9t9OV6PPxP02OjYhZFHC_Cg-VGijh_V93dI",{"id":124,"title":125,"body":126,"county":146,"description":10,"extension":13,"intro":147,"meta":148,"navigation":21,"path":149,"seo":150,"stem":151,"tag":152,"__hash__":153},"cities\u002Fcities\u002Fmerced.md","Merced",{"type":7,"value":127,"toc":143},[128,132],[61,129,131],{"id":130},"ai-in-merced","AI in Merced",[66,133,134,135,138,139,142],{},"Merced is a research-heavy node in the Central Valley AI ecosystem. ",[70,136,137],{},"UC Merced"," faculty appear in national conversations about AI safety, autonomous vehicles, climate modeling, and pediatric health applications, while the ",[70,140,141],{},"Merced Unified School District"," and surrounding county institutions navigate the same K-12 and workforce questions the rest of the Valley faces. The articles below cover both the campus research story and the broader applied uses around the city and county.",{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":144},[145],{"id":130,"depth":11,"text":131},"Merced County","Merced punches above its weight in AI research, anchored by UC Merced — a leading West Coast hub for AI in agriculture, climate, autonomous systems, and health. Coverage on this page tracks both academic research coming out of the campus and how AI is showing up across Merced's schools, businesses, and county institutions.",{},"\u002Fcities\u002Fmerced",{"title":125,"description":10},"cities\u002Fmerced","merced","pSWWlEzMdcv2_RZrUKdkEHU3bixNboePGdHbSdd1m34",{"id":155,"title":156,"body":157,"county":173,"description":10,"extension":13,"intro":174,"meta":175,"navigation":21,"path":176,"seo":177,"stem":178,"tag":179,"__hash__":180},"cities\u002Fcities\u002Fmodesto.md","Modesto",{"type":7,"value":158,"toc":170},[159,163],[61,160,162],{"id":161},"ai-in-modesto","AI in Modesto",[66,164,165,166,169],{},"Modesto's AI conversation tends to combine ag-tech adoption stories with workforce-readiness questions for the city's small and mid-sized employers. ",[70,167,168],{},"CSU Stanislaus"," and the regional community college network shape the higher-ed angle. Coverage below follows Modesto-area AI announcements and the wider Stanislaus County context.",{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":171},[172],{"id":161,"depth":11,"text":162},"Stanislaus County","Modesto and Stanislaus County sit between the Bay Area and the southern Valley, and their AI story reflects that bridging role — from agriculture and food processing to the **California State University Stanislaus** community to small businesses adapting to AI-driven changes in marketing, hiring, and operations.",{},"\u002Fcities\u002Fmodesto",{"title":156,"description":10},"cities\u002Fmodesto","modesto","l75Dc40MX8wTb4lD088Yx9we4ypuDwmcvE-uEdqqREc",{"id":182,"title":183,"body":184,"county":200,"description":10,"extension":13,"intro":201,"meta":202,"navigation":21,"path":203,"seo":204,"stem":205,"tag":206,"__hash__":207},"cities\u002Fcities\u002Fstockton.md","Stockton",{"type":7,"value":185,"toc":197},[186,190],[61,187,189],{"id":188},"ai-in-stockton","AI in Stockton",[66,191,192,193,196],{},"Stockton's economic base in logistics, healthcare, and higher education gives the city a different AI profile than the southern Valley. ",[70,194,195],{},"University of the Pacific"," anchors the academic conversation, while San Joaquin County government, hospitals, and warehouse operators are navigating practical adoption questions: cost, training, security, workforce impact. The articles below track Stockton-area AI announcements and the broader San Joaquin County context.",{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":198},[199],{"id":188,"depth":11,"text":189},"San Joaquin County","Stockton and San Joaquin County sit at the northern edge of the Central Valley, where logistics, healthcare, and the University of the Pacific shape the local AI adoption story. Coverage on this page follows how AI is being put to work — and questioned — across San Joaquin County's institutions, employers, and public services.",{},"\u002Fcities\u002Fstockton",{"title":183,"description":10},"cities\u002Fstockton","stockton","TYEBK9akp2HbpAFmYY67FeKt7Rs7L8tvtYeQBtgJAHw",{"id":209,"title":210,"body":211,"county":227,"description":10,"extension":13,"intro":228,"meta":229,"navigation":21,"path":230,"seo":231,"stem":232,"tag":233,"__hash__":234},"cities\u002Fcities\u002Fvisalia.md","Visalia",{"type":7,"value":212,"toc":224},[213,217],[61,214,216],{"id":215},"ai-in-visalia","AI in Visalia",[66,218,219,220,223],{},"Visalia's AI footprint is grounded in the practical adoption stories that come with a Tulare County economy built around agriculture, food processing, and rural healthcare. ",[70,221,222],{},"College of the Sequoias"," and the surrounding K-12 districts anchor the education conversation. The articles below cover Visalia-area AI developments and the Tulare County context, with a focus on applied uses rather than research or model development.",{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":225},[226],{"id":215,"depth":11,"text":216},"Tulare County","Visalia is the largest city in Tulare County and a center for agriculture, healthcare, and county-government services in the southern Central Valley. Coverage on this page tracks how AI is being adopted across Tulare County's schools, hospitals, ag operations, and small business community.",{},"\u002Fcities\u002Fvisalia",{"title":210,"description":10},"cities\u002Fvisalia","visalia","gN4g7aAl-cqD4FfSTgtTAarltUoKLh8NFlPzCbZngqU",{"id":236,"title":237,"archived":238,"author":239,"body":240,"date":337,"dateModified":337,"description":338,"extension":13,"meta":339,"navigation":21,"path":340,"rawbody":341,"seo":342,"sitemap":343,"stem":344,"tags":345,"__hash__":348},"news\u002Fnews\u002Fuc-santa-cruz-demos-ai-with-brain-organoids-with-possible-uses-in-valley-care.md","UC Santa Cruz demos AI with brain organoids, with possible uses in Valley care",false,"CVAI Newsdesk",{"type":7,"value":241,"toc":330},[242,246,250,269,273,276,279,283,286,289,293,296,299,302,317,320,324],[243,244,237],"h1",{"id":245},"uc-santa-cruz-demos-ai-with-brain-organoids-with-possible-uses-in-valley-care",[61,247,249],{"id":248},"key-takeaways","Key Takeaways",[251,252,253,257,260,263,266],"ol",{},[254,255,256],"li",{},"UC Santa Cruz researchers demonstrated AI interacting with human brain organoids in mid May in Menlo Park.",[254,258,259],{},"A lab-grown organoid learned a pole-balancing task and AI models detected and calmed a seizure in a separate demo.",[254,261,262],{},"The team is building an NIH BRAIN Initiative Brain Cell Data Explorer with partner labs.",[254,264,265],{},"Potential impacts include epilepsy care improvements and student pipelines for UC Merced and Valley hospitals.",[254,267,268],{},"Organizing work continues, with ethicists and funders invited into the process.",[61,270,272],{"id":271},"what-they-showed","What they showed",[66,274,275],{},"A volunteer tapped arrow keys and the pole kept falling. On the next screen, a pea-sized brain organoid, wired to a virtual world, learned to keep the pole upright. \"There is no way the organoids are doing it by accident,\" postdoc Ash Robbins told the audience, after a few laughs when the human missed. UC Santa Cruz’s Braingeneers group ran the demo at a small May gathering in Menlo Park, pairing organoids with artificial intelligence to test learning and control.",[66,277,278],{},"The second demo streamed an “Organoid ER.” Researchers induced a seizure in lab tissue, then showed a tiered set of AI models flag the event and recommend a calming drug. David Haussler, scientific director of the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, put the aim plainly: \"Using AI and human brain organoids together to understand how our brains actually work will give us a much deeper understanding of ourselves.\"",[61,280,282],{"id":281},"why-it-matters-in-the-valley","Why it matters in the Valley",[66,284,285],{},"If this platform holds up, it could change how clinics test drugs for epilepsy and other conditions, which lands at Valley Children’s in Madera and Community Regional in Fresno long before it hits a national rollout. UC Merced’s bioengineering and computer science programs train the kind of students these labs will hire, and the data-analysis work alone is a campus-scale lift. For Valley families managing seizures, even modest gains in prediction or dosing would be a big deal. And fast.",[66,287,288],{},"Researchers at the event said prototypes could be ready within two years. That timeline, if it sticks, lines up with hiring cycles and grant calendars across the CSU and UC systems that serve Merced, Stanislaus, and Fresno counties.",[61,290,292],{"id":291},"who-is-backing-it","Who is backing it",[66,294,295],{},"The Braingeneers are leading an NIH BRAIN Initiative effort to build a Brain Cell Data Explorer and they serve as the analysis hub for a National Institute of Mental Health project studying 250 high-risk neuro genes. Stanford computer scientist Jure Leskovec is collaborating on foundation models for biology that could read cellular signals the way language models read text. Former CIRM chair Bob Klein was in the room, along with leaders from One Mind, the Templeton Foundation, and Helena, and ethicist Hank Greely guided a discussion on guardrails.",[66,297,298],{},"The pitch was direct. UC Santa Cruz is lining up funders, partners, and outside reviewers to scale from dozens to thousands of organoid experiments running in parallel. That means automated growth, long-duration recordings, and AI tuned to spot patterns before a human can.",[66,300,301],{},"\"This is the beginning of something very big,\" Haussler said.",[66,303,304],{},[305,306,307,308,310,311,316],"em",{},"Central Valley AI is produced by the ",[70,309,239],{}," team and developed by ",[312,313,37],"a",{"href":38,"rel":314},[315],"nofollow",", a regional firm that builds, deploys, and integrates AI solutions for businesses across California's Central Valley.",[318,319],"hr",{},[61,321,323],{"id":322},"source","Source",[66,325,326],{},[312,327,328],{"href":328,"rel":329},"https:\u002F\u002Fnews.ucsc.edu\u002F2026\u002F06\u002Ffrontier-brain-science-with-ai-and-organoids\u002F",[315],{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":331},[332,333,334,335,336],{"id":248,"depth":11,"text":249},{"id":271,"depth":11,"text":272},{"id":281,"depth":11,"text":282},{"id":291,"depth":11,"text":292},{"id":322,"depth":11,"text":323},"2026-06-29","UC Santa Cruz researchers showed AI working with human brain organoids and outlined an NIH-backed data effort. Central Valley hospitals and UC Merced programs could benefit if the tech matures.",{},"\u002Fnews\u002Fuc-santa-cruz-demos-ai-with-brain-organoids-with-possible-uses-in-valley-care","---\nauthor: CVAI Newsdesk\ndate: 2026-06-29\ndateModified: '2026-06-29'\ndescription: UC Santa Cruz researchers showed AI working with human brain organoids\n  and outlined an NIH-backed data effort. Central Valley hospitals and UC Merced programs\n  could benefit if the tech matures.\ntags:\n- healthcare\n- research\n- merced\ntitle: UC Santa Cruz demos AI with brain organoids, with possible uses in Valley care\n---\n\n# UC Santa Cruz demos AI with brain organoids, with possible uses in Valley care\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n1. UC Santa Cruz researchers demonstrated AI interacting with human brain organoids in mid May in Menlo Park.\n2. A lab-grown organoid learned a pole-balancing task and AI models detected and calmed a seizure in a separate demo.\n3. The team is building an NIH BRAIN Initiative Brain Cell Data Explorer with partner labs.\n4. Potential impacts include epilepsy care improvements and student pipelines for UC Merced and Valley hospitals.\n5. Organizing work continues, with ethicists and funders invited into the process.\n\n## What they showed\n\nA volunteer tapped arrow keys and the pole kept falling. On the next screen, a pea-sized brain organoid, wired to a virtual world, learned to keep the pole upright. \"There is no way the organoids are doing it by accident,\" postdoc Ash Robbins told the audience, after a few laughs when the human missed. UC Santa Cruz’s Braingeneers group ran the demo at a small May gathering in Menlo Park, pairing organoids with artificial intelligence to test learning and control.\n\nThe second demo streamed an “Organoid ER.” Researchers induced a seizure in lab tissue, then showed a tiered set of AI models flag the event and recommend a calming drug. David Haussler, scientific director of the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, put the aim plainly: \"Using AI and human brain organoids together to understand how our brains actually work will give us a much deeper understanding of ourselves.\"\n\n## Why it matters in the Valley\n\nIf this platform holds up, it could change how clinics test drugs for epilepsy and other conditions, which lands at Valley Children’s in Madera and Community Regional in Fresno long before it hits a national rollout. UC Merced’s bioengineering and computer science programs train the kind of students these labs will hire, and the data-analysis work alone is a campus-scale lift. For Valley families managing seizures, even modest gains in prediction or dosing would be a big deal. And fast.\n\nResearchers at the event said prototypes could be ready within two years. That timeline, if it sticks, lines up with hiring cycles and grant calendars across the CSU and UC systems that serve Merced, Stanislaus, and Fresno counties.\n\n## Who is backing it\n\nThe Braingeneers are leading an NIH BRAIN Initiative effort to build a Brain Cell Data Explorer and they serve as the analysis hub for a National Institute of Mental Health project studying 250 high-risk neuro genes. Stanford computer scientist Jure Leskovec is collaborating on foundation models for biology that could read cellular signals the way language models read text. Former CIRM chair Bob Klein was in the room, along with leaders from One Mind, the Templeton Foundation, and Helena, and ethicist Hank Greely guided a discussion on guardrails.\n\nThe pitch was direct. UC Santa Cruz is lining up funders, partners, and outside reviewers to scale from dozens to thousands of organoid experiments running in parallel. That means automated growth, long-duration recordings, and AI tuned to spot patterns before a human can.\n\n\"This is the beginning of something very big,\" Haussler said.\n\n*Central Valley AI is produced by the **CVAI Newsdesk** team and developed by [Kaweah Tech](https:\u002F\u002Fkaweah.tech), a regional firm that builds, deploys, and integrates AI solutions for businesses across California's Central Valley.*\n\n---\n\n## Source\n\nhttps:\u002F\u002Fnews.ucsc.edu\u002F2026\u002F06\u002Ffrontier-brain-science-with-ai-and-organoids\u002F\n",{"title":237,"description":338},{"loc":340},"news\u002Fuc-santa-cruz-demos-ai-with-brain-organoids-with-possible-uses-in-valley-care",[346,347,152],"healthcare","research","UHDcuXjo-RLN3EcQm6E5U1slEjQIGYXSzRhKIi9gmAw",1783395174559]