Scientists Develop DNA-Based Biocomputer

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and North Carolina State University have developed a functional computer based on DNA instead of traditional electronics. This is detailed in a study published in Nature Nanotechnology.

The tested technology can perform multiple functions such as storing, computing, retrieving, erasing, and rewriting data. Previous attempts at DNA-based data storage and computation could not perform all these functions.

“In conventional computing technologies, we take for granted that data storage and processing methods are compatible with each other. In reality, these processes occur in separate parts of a computer, and modern PCs are a network of complex technologies,” commented project leader Albert Keung.

He noted that DNA-based computing faces challenges in storing, retrieving, and computing data when it exists as nucleic acids. Electronic computing is more appealing due to the compatibility of all device components.

“Until now, it was believed that while DNA data storage might be useful in the long term, it would be difficult or impossible to develop a technology that encompasses the full range of operations found in traditional electronic devices […]” said Keung.

The experts achieved this result through cutting-edge technologies that allowed the creation of soft polymer materials with unique morphology.

“You can fit data from thousands of laptops into a DNA-based storage the size of a pencil eraser,” Keung emphasized.

The researchers noted that the new technology can solve simple tasks from Sudoku and chess and “store data for thousands of years” without degradation of the DNA-encoded information.

Earlier, the Swiss company FinalSpark created a computer architecture from living biological matter—organoids of the human brain, which it rents to scientists for $500 a month.

Previously, Chinese scientists developed a robot with a lab-grown artificial brain, which can be taught to perform various tasks.