DNA Computing

Nature provides us with an elegant medium for information storage and manipulation in DNA and enzymes. The complex arrangement of the four basic nucleotides can be manipulated with naturally occurring enzymes and read by hybridization.We are collaborating with Robert Corn (Chemistry, UW) and Anne Condon (Computer Science, University of British Colombia) on the development of scalable DNA-based computing. By immobilizing the information-encoded DNA on a solid support, it becomes a simple matter to purify them between the various steps of the computation. We have demonstrated the feasibility by solving a small satisfiability problem, in which the values of Boolean Variables satisfying a series of clauses are determined. In our present efforts, this approach is being expanded to larger problems.