DNA, curcuitry of life... so to speak. (via stock photography)
Already hard at work with recent announcements that shift us into the world of biological computing via DNA information storage and transmission processes, the same Stanford research team brings us more good news on the third and final component that will soon make biological computers fully functional: a DNA- and RNA- based transistor.
The team of bioengineers from Stanford published a paper in the March 28th issue of Science fully detailing their work that resulted in a biological transistor dubbed the “transcriptor”. Unlike ordinary transistors that perform logic operations by controlling the flow of electrons over a semiconductor material, the transcriptor manages the flow of RNA polymerase along a strand of DNA. The transcriptor is even capable of performing similar logic gate functions via its integrated “Boolean Integrase Logic” gates, or “BIL” gates for short.
To create the device, the team chose integrase enzymes that could effectively move the RNA over DNA strands inside the cells of a variety of organisms that include: plants, fungi, animals, and bacteria. Another similarity between the transcriptor and a standard transistor is its ability to amplify a signal over a long distance. By combining multiple transcriptors with Stanford’s previous mechanism for cell- to- cell genetic information transmission, amplified signals can be communicated to large groups of living cells, essentially creating a biological mesh network. This, in tandem with rewritable data storage within DNA strands, creates the full inner workings of a biological computing machine.
In addition to informing us on their impressive work thus far on biological computing, Stanford’s research group has made all of the BIL gates available to the public domain. Jerome Bonnet, PhD student and the paper’s lead author, explains that this step will allow the open-public to quickly begin improving upon their research and bring us closer to the first biological computer in a timely manner:
“Most of biotechnology has not yet been imagined, let alone made true. By freely sharing important basic tools everyone can work better together.”
C
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