Improved and Powerful Biologically Relevant Bio-Molecular Computing Devices Rendering a Biological Signal
Written by Tamar Ratner
T. Ratner, R. Piran, S. Yogev, S. Shoshani and E. Keinan
We have recently reported on the first nanoscale programmable finite automaton. The automaton computes in a solution, with soluble biomolecules serving as hardware, software, input and output. An advanced Bio-computing device, capable of performing complex operations, such as information writing, was recently designed. In addition to the advancement in computation power and complexity, this enables parallel computation. Various applications are currently under development, such as the Meally-machine, which is a read-and-write transducer. This is a device capable of documenting computational processes in a different set of symbols (decoding encrypted data), and of processing input to produce output simultaneously. This could be used in a more complex system, where the new set of symbols becomes the input of a different automaton. In this manner, we can perform novel operations, with higher complexity. Most importantly, we aim to advance the concept of molecular computing as a whole. We have made progress toward showing that output is not necessarily a specific molecule, but can be the attainment of a specific biological function. This demonstrates the biological relevance of Bio-Molecular Computing (BMC). The great benefit of such a device, using circular plasmids, is the ability to use a variety of reporter genes as detection molecules. Under such circumstances, the final output of the system would be the macroscopic characteristic caused by the protein expressed from the reporter gene.