The Possibility of Computational DNA
/Reprogrammable DNA
“Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Harvard University have shown that it is possible to reprogram a DNA-based computer, Wired reports.
The team, led by Caltech's Erik Winfree, reports in Nature that it developed and validated a set of 355 DNA tiles that they could then reprogram into a range of six-bit algorithms. In particular, the team says it constructed 21 circuits that perform algorithms that copy, sort, elect a leader, and generate random patterns, among other tasks, with an error rate of less than 1 in 3,000. This, they add, suggests "molecular self-assembly could be a reliable algorithmic component within programmable chemical systems.“
