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First 'biological computer' created, can read DNA

By , ZDNet Asia on February 9, 2012 

 

Summary

Scientists introduce computer made entirely from biomolecules and capable of deciphering images encrypted on DNA chips, but machine will not compete with electronic counterparts.

Events

Echelon 2012
June 11 and 12, 2012

University Cultural Centre, National University of Singapore

Startup Asia Jakarta 2012
June 7 and 8, 2012

12th Floor, Annex Building, Wisma Nusantara Complex, Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 59 Jakarta 10350, Indonesia

MMA Forum Singapore
April 23-25, 2012

Grand Hyatt Singapore

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Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute in California and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have created a "biological computer" made from biomolecules, which is capable of decrypting images stored on DNA chips.

According to a press release issued by The Scripps Research Institute, a group led by the Institute's Ehud Keinan created a computing system using biomolecules and, when suitable software was applied to it, the computer could decrypt, separately, fluorescent images of the two institutes' logos that were encrypted on a single DNA chip.

Explaining the difference between conventional electronic computers and the biological computer, Keinan noted that a computer is, by definition, a machine made of four components--hardware, software, input and output. Traditional computers have always been electronic, in which both input and output are electronic signals, he said.

"In contrast, there are computing machines in which all four components are nothing but molecules," the professor noted, cutting human beings as an example in which all four components are molecules that "talk" to one another logically.

However, Keinan stated that biological computers were not developed to compete with electronic computers, which offer greater speed, fidelity, and power in traditional computing tasks.

Rather, the main advantage of such biological computing machines is the fact that these devices can interact directly with biological systems and living organisms. "No interface is required since all components of molecular computers, including hardware, software, input, and output, are molecules that interact in solution along a cascade of programmable chemical events," the professor said.

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