Molecular implementation of simple logic programs

Autonomous programmable computing devices made of biomolecules could interact with a biological environment and be used in future biological and medical applications 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 . Biomolecular implementations of finite automata 8 , 9 and logic gates 4 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 have already b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature nanotechnology Vol. 4; no. 10; pp. 642 - 648
Main Authors: Ran, Tom, Kaplan, Shai, Shapiro, Ehud
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.10.2009
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
Biomolecules
Chemistry and Materials Science
Computation
Computational Biology
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA - chemistry
letter
Logic
Logic programming
Logic programs
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology and Microengineering
Philosophers
Programmable logic devices
Programming languages
Queries
Representations
Strands
ISSN:1748-3387, 1748-3395, 1748-3395
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Autonomous programmable computing devices made of biomolecules could interact with a biological environment and be used in future biological and medical applications 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 . Biomolecular implementations of finite automata 8 , 9 and logic gates 4 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 have already been developed 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 . Here, we report an autonomous programmable molecular system based on the manipulation of DNA strands that is capable of performing simple logical deductions. Using molecular representations of facts such as Man ( Socrates ) and rules such as Mortal ( X ) ←  Man ( X ) (Every Man is Mortal), the system can answer molecular queries such as Mortal ( Socrates )? (Is Socrates Mortal?) and Mortal ( X )? (Who is Mortal?). This biomolecular computing system compares favourably with previous approaches in terms of expressive power, performance and precision 2 , 4 , 8 , 9 , 11 , 12 , 19 . A compiler translates facts, rules and queries into their molecular representations and subsequently operates a robotic system that assembles the logical deductions and delivers the result. This prototype is the first simple programming language with a molecular-scale implementation. DNA strands can be used to build an autonomous programmable molecular system that is capable of performing simple logical deductions.
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ISSN:1748-3387
1748-3395
1748-3395
DOI:10.1038/nnano.2009.203