Biological computers are made from living cells. Instead of electrical wiring and signaling, biological computers use chemical inputs and other biologically derived molecules such as proteins and DNA. Just like a desktop computer, these organic computers can respond to data and process it, albeit in a rudimentary manner similar to the capabilities of computers circa 1920. While biological computers have a long way to go before they are as sophisticated as today’s personal computers, the fact that researchers have been able to get biological computers to complete a logic gate is a notable achievement.
Although bio computing has similarities with biology and computer science, it doesn’t fit seamlessly with either one. In biology, the goal is to reverse engineer things that have already been built. Bio computing aims to forward engineer biology.
Experts in computer science are accustomed to machines executing programmed commands; when dealing with biological environments in what is known as a “wet lab,” organisms might react unpredictably. The culprit could be the cell’s programming, or it could easily be something external such as the environmental conditions, nutrition, or timing.
The founders of Synth ego, a Silicon Valley startup, aren’t biologists. They are brothers and software engineers who used to work for SpaceX building rockets but thought there was potential in taking what they knew about agile design to gene-editing tools. The company creates customized CRISPR kits for scientists from a selection of approximately 5,000 organisms available in Synth ego’s genome library. Ultimately, this can cut down the time it takes for scientists to do gene edits.
Microsoft forays into biological computing is called Station B. The company partnered with Princeton University and two UK companies, Oxford Biomedical and Synthase, on the new research system that can analyze volumes of biomedical data with a set of integrated computer programs. This analysis is then used to guide scientists on the best way to proceed with research, such as editing DNA in a certain way. The hope is that this system will ultimately lower the cost of gene-therapy products to bring them to many more patients.
WHAT’S the difference between a thimbleful of bacteria and a supercomputer? Believe it or not, the bacteria contain more circuits and more processing power.
That is perhaps not so surprising when you consider that all life computes: from individual cells responding to chemical signals to complex organisms navigating their environment, information processing is central to living systems. What’s more intriguing, however, is that after decades of trying, we are finally starting to corral cells, molecules and even whole organisms to carry out computational tasks for our own ends.
That isn’t to say biological computers will replace the microchips you find in your smartphone or laptop, never mind supercomputers. But as bioengineers get to grips with the wet and squishy component's nature provides, they are beginning to figure out where biological computers might ultimately be useful – from smart materials and logistics solutions to intelligent machines powered by tiny amounts of energy.
If the applications seem unusual and eclectic, that is the point. "Bio computing is not competing against conventional computers," says AngelGoni Moreno at the Technical University of Madrid in Spain. “It’s a radically different point of view that could help us tackle problems in domains that were simply not reachable before.” It might even force us to rethink our assumptions about what computing is, and what it can do for us.
For decades, computing has been dominated by silicon chips. These are made up of billions of tiny switches called transistors that encode data in bits, or binary digits. If a switch is open and electrical current is allowed to flow, this represents a 1. If it is closed …
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