Researchers Make Latest Breakthrough in Biomolecular Computing

Researchers at the Technion-Isreal Institute of Technology developed an advanced biological transducer, a "computer" made entirely of DNA and enzymes. Biological transducers translate physical or chemical stimuli into processable electrical or chemical signals. According to its inventors, the biomolecular computer is powerful enough to break genetic codes and may one day assist with endeavors such as gene therapy and genetic cloning.

There's no traditional CPU or hard drive powering the bio-computer, no hardware or software, nor is there any tangible interface to the system: it's all made possible by molecular interaction, a series of programmable chemical events that take place in a solution.

"Our results show a novel, synthetic designed computing machine that computes iteratively and produces biologically relevant results," said Ehud Keinan, a lead researcher at Technion Schulich Faculty of Chemistry. "In addition to enhanced computation power, this DNA-based transducer offers multiple benefits, including the ability to read and transform genetic information, miniaturization to the molecular scale, and the aptitude to produce computational results that interact directly with living organisms."

Keinan said that all biological systems and even entire living organisms are all, in a way, molecular computers.

"Every one of us is a biomolecular computer, that is, a machine in which all components are molecules "talking" to one another in a logical manner. The hardware and software are complex biological molecules that activate one another to carry out some predetermined chemical tasks.

In the same way that person using a laptop computer inputs their commands with a keyboard, on the molecular level, the input is specific, programmed changes in a biomolecule.

Much like typing a command into a program and hitting enter to get a result, the output for the biomolecular computation process is another well-defined molecule, Keinan said.

Research on biomolecular computing is ongoing and those involved in the field believe the future shows great promise. In 2011 researches from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, developed a biomolecular computer that could autonomously sense many different types of molecules simultaneously.

Binyamin Gil, a research involved in the 2011 study, said that in the future nanometer-sized computing devices made from biomolecules could roam our bodies and search for diseases in the early stages.

"These devices would have the ability to sense disease indicators, diagnose the disease, and treat it by administering or activating a therapeutic biomolecule. They could be delivered to the bloodstream or operate inside cells of a specific organ or tissue and be given as a preventive care."

In March of this year, researchers at Stanford University announced they had developed the biomolecular equivalent of a transistor. The invention was the final of the three components necessary to build a computer: data storage, information transmission and a basic system of logic.