In a petri dish, a miniaturized brain model, just a few millimeters across, is growing steadily. Made of real human neurons, the model is connected to a custom-developed neural chip beneath it that reads its electrical signals in real time.

The scene may look like something out of a science fiction movie, but it is taking place at Shanghai Brain Intelli Technology Co Ltd, a startup founded less than a year ago in the Lin-gang Special Area.

Shanghai Brain Intelli Technology is a Lin-gang-based startup that focuses on brain science. [Photo/WeChat account of Brain Intelli]

The company uses human stem cells to grow brain organoids that mimic the human brain's cellular structure and electrophysiological activity. This approach avoids the ethical challenges, lengthy timelines, and difficulties in obtaining human brain samples, said Liu Yang, a co-founder of Brain Intelli and head of its wetware division.

One promising application is drug research and development. Brain organoids could evaluate the effects of neurological drugs, improving the accuracy of drug-efficacy assessments and accelerating the R&D process, Liu said.

His team set up in Lin-gang in January. Six months later, Brain Intelli's global headquarters and gigafactory opened at Dishui Lake AI Innovation Hub, backed by a range of support measures, including rental discounts, computing-power subsidies, and talent housing programs.

The company's growth comes amid Lin-gang's push to develop the brain-computer interface industry, which the area has identified as a key focus of its future-oriented development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30).