project basel biotechnology corridor

 

History of DNA Computers
 
The first person who thought of and experimented with DNA as an alternative to silicon chips was Leonard Adleman, a computer scientist working in the University of Southern California. The 1994 experiment using DNA as a way of solving complex mathematical problems was a product of a book's influence (Molecular Biology of the Gene written by James Watson).
DNA computers will work through the use of DNA-based logic gates. These logic gates are very much similar to what is used in our computers today with the only difference being the composition of the input and output signals. In the current technology of logic gates, binary codes from the silicon transistors are converted into instructions that can be carried out by the computer. DNA computers, on the other hand, use DNA codes in place of electrical signals as inputs to the DNA logic gates. DNA computers are, however, still in its infancy and though it may be very fast in providing possible answers, narrowing these answers down still takes days.In 2002, researchers from the Weizmann Institue of Science in Rehovot, Israel, unveiled a programmable molecular computing machine composed of enzymes and DNA molecules instead of silicon microchips. On April 28, 2004, Ehud Shapiro, Yaakov Benenson, Binyamin Gil, Uri Ben-Dor, and Rivka Adar at the Weizmann Institute announced in the journal Nature that they had constructed a DNA computer coupled with an input and output module which would theoretically be capable of diagnosing cancerous activity within a cell, and releasing an anti-cancer drug upon diagnosis.
In 2008, Japanese Scientists Build the World's First Artificial DNA Molecule
According to the Journal of the American Chemical Society, scientists in Japan report to have developed the world's first DNA molecule made almost entirely of artificial parts. The new study has recently been published online in the online version of the journal. Until now, only parts of the molecule could artificially be changed through genetic engineering techniques. But now, and according to this study, a completely new artificial DNA molecule has been made up.

Although the authors of the study called this new molecule artificial DNA it is not actually real DNA. Contrary to that is a molecule that resembles natural DNA.

The artificially constructed DNA was made of stable C-nucleosides. These C-nucleosides are nor naturally occurring so they are man made. However, assembling them in a polymeric structure results in a the characteristic double stranded structure of DNA.

The Japanese researchers utilized high-tech DNA synthesis equipment to put together four completely new C-nucleosides, artificial bases, inside the sugar-based framework of a DNA molecule. The resulting molecule was very stable (thermodynamically stable as they say) and resembled very much the natural DNA structure.

According to Masahiko Inouye, from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Japan, and lead author of the study, the new artificial DNA could be very useful for humanity since it could be used for improvements in gene therapy, futuristic nano-sized computers, and other high-tech advances.
 
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