Communications of the ACM
Scientists Demonstrate Basics of Nucleic Acid Computing Inside Cells
Using strands of nucleic acid, scientists have demonstrated basic computing operations inside a living mammalian cell.
Credit: Rob Felt/Georgia Institute of Technology
Scientists have demonstrated basic computing operations inside a living mammalian cell, technology that could lead to an artificial sensing system that could control the behavior of cells.
The researchers used DNA strand displacement, a technology that has been widely used outside of cells for the design of molecular circuits, motors, and sensors. The researchers modified the process to provide both AND and OR logic gates able to operate inside the living cells and interact with native messenger RNA.
Strand displacement reactions are the biological equivalent of the switches or gates that form the foundation for silicon-based computing. "The whole idea is to be able to take the logic that is used in computers and port that logic into cells themselves," says Georgia Institute of Technology/Emory University professor Philip Santangelo.
The research could lead to the development of devices that could, for example, sense an aberrant RNA and then shut down cellular translation or induce cell death.
The next step is to use the switching of nucleic acid computers to trigger the production of signaling chemicals, which would prompt the desired reaction from the cells.
The research was supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
From Georgia Tech News Center
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