Using engineered gene "circuits" to control cellular
function in the presence of background noise has many potential applications in
the emerging field of synthetic biology. Such a technology would also be
relevant to the creation and design of cells controlled by
chemically-synthesized genomes. The "holy grail" would be the ability to apply
this control by externally manipulating an engineered circuit.
Researchers at Arizona State University have developed an
auto-regulatory gene network in the bacteriophage l.
This network emulates a logical AND gate. Through varying internal system
parameters, the gate will morph into an OR gate. This change happens via
stochastic resonance, wherein the noise level within the network determines the
output (i.e., which gate is emulated). Additionally, if the outputs are
reversed, NAND and NOR gates can be emulated.
Potential applications for this technology include control
networks for synthetic biological system of engineered bacteria with synthetic
genomes, and cellular computers capable of reproduction.
Potential Applications
- Basic building blocks of cellular computation
- Reproducing cellular computers
- Synthetic biological systems that can be controlled via externally-applied
(deterministic) signals
Benefits and Advantages
- Biological system that can emulate four different logic
gates
- Gate function can be manipulated externally
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For more information about the inventor(s) and their
research, please see
Dr. Ditto's
directory webpage
