Biological computers on the horizon

Researchers have built basic components for digital devices from bacteria and DNA, a huge first step for the future production of biological computing devices. Logic gates, used for processing information in computers and similar devices, have been formed using gut bacteria and DNA. The new biological gates are modular and can be fitted together, potentially one day allowing more complex processors than their electronic counterparts.

Professor Richard Kitney, co-director of the EPSRC Centre for Synthetic Biology Science and Innovation, said, "Logic gates are the fundamental building blocks in silicon circuitry that our entire digital age is based on. Without them, we could not process digital information. Now that we have demonstrated that we can replicate these parts using bacteria and DNA, we hope that our work could lead to a new generation of biological processors, whose applications in information processing could be as important as their electronic equivalents."

Future devices may include sensors that can swim inside arteries and detect harmful build-ups of plaque, or deliver medications rapidly and efficiently. Cancer cells could be targeted by new devices. The environment could be monitored and dangerous toxins neturalised before they become harmful.

Previous attempts to make biological logic gates have only succeeded in proving that they can be made, but the EPSRC team have developed gates that work to the same standard as the electronic versions. The next stage of the research will be to develop more complex circuitry that uses multiple logic gates. How to link the logic gates in a similar manner to electronic versions is one of the key issues for the research.

The team believe that their research could see biological circuitry processing information using chemicals in much the same way our bodies do.

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Published: Wednesday, 9th November 2011 by Ellen Haggan