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Microtubule
Computing

Two substrates, two architectures ↓

Evolution has woven the fabric of biological intelligence with microtubules. At QLT, we unravel then reweave the threads into two kinds of computers, both organic and engineered, both harnessing topological computing.

Two substrates,
two architectures

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Self-Organized

Let the microtubules grow, see which problems they can solve. There are two forms:

OrganicandSynthetic

Designed Circuit

Choose problems they can solve and build the circuits to solve them. There are two forms:

OrganicandSynthetic

Anatomy of a microtubule

Zooming in from a neuron, to a bundle of microtubules inside it, to a single microtubule, to one tubulin dimer.

~86 billion neurons in the human brain

~104–105 microtubules per neuron

~1.6×104 dimers per 10-µm MTThis amounts to ≈ 1.93 × 1024 biological switching units, or qubits, in a human brain

~1.4×105 aromatic amino acids/µm MT

  1. ~86 billion neurons in the human brain
  2. ~104–105 microtubules per neuron
  3. ~1.6×104 dimers per 10-µm MTThis amounts to ≈ 1.93 × 1024 biological switching units, or qubits, in a human brain
  4. ~1.4×105 aromatic amino acids/µm MT
Fig. 3.  From brain to molecule — schematic, not to scale.
  1. Human brain~15 cm across
  2. NeuronCell body: 10–50 µm
  3. Microtubule networkMicrometre scale
  4. MicrotubuleDiameter: ~25 nm
  5. Tubulin dimerLength: ~8 nm
  6. TryptophanMolecular size: ~1 nm
  1. Human brain~15 cm across
  2. NeuronCell body: 10–50 µm
  3. Microtubule networkMicrometre scale
  4. MicrotubuleDiameter: ~25 nm
  5. Tubulin dimerLength: ~8 nm
  6. TryptophanMolecular size: ~1 nm

Qubit nature of a dimer

See how they operate ↗ (opens in a new tab)

The aromatic* amino acids - Tryptophan, Tyrosine, and Phenylalanine - have massive, highly polarizable 𝜋** electron clouds

Key point: when electrons are delocalized, different states = different information, thus they can compute aka serve as qubits.

*aromatic = has a benzene ring
**𝜋 = the electron is delocalized

*For example, in the Radical Pair Mechanism, a widely accepted phenomenon in the QBio community, delocalized electrons are the base of computation via interstate conversion

Fig. 4.  Qubit nature of a dimer
A tubulin dimer: α tubulin (blue) joined to β tubulin (violet), with its aromatic amino acids highlighted in yellow and orange.
  • Tryptophan
  • Tyrosine
  • Phenylalanine

The case for biological computing

The planet is paying
for compute

~560bn liters

Water consumed by data centers in 2023, rising to ~1,200 billion liters by 2030

IEA via Bloomberg (Nicoletti et al., 2025); de Vries-Gao (2025)

+2.0 °C

Projected warming by 2050 above pre-industrial (1850–1900) levels, intermediate scenario

IPCC AR6, Table SPM.1

Today’s machines fight
physics to think

100 MW–1 GW

To run a single AI data center

Lawson et al. (2026); CRS R48646

20–26 kW

To hold one quantum computer at 10–35 millikelvin, ~80% of it spent on cooling

Parker & Vermeer (2023); Carrasco-Codina et al. (2026)

Biology solved this billions of years ago

Life runs on almost nothing

~10 pW

To keep a biological quantum computer running, 15 orders of magnitude less

BioNumbers; PMC3289792

20 W

The power budget of the human brain

PMC124895

Fig. 5. Computational units — logarithmic scale.

And it computes at
a scale silicon can’t reach

~1027

Computational units in a microtubule computer, vs ~1–5 trillion parameters in frontier AI models

Stuart prospectus; Epoch AI (2026)

~300 K

Room temperature. Biological components need no cryogenic cooling, vs 0.01–0.035 K for superconducting qubits

Parker & Vermeer (2023)

Fig. 6. Operating temperature — kelvin, logarithmic scale.

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