Synthetic biologists have engineered Escherichia coli cells to behave like transistors, according to a study published last week (March 28) in Science. Computer-like cells could be programmed to carry out simple logical functions.
Drew Endy, a synthetic biologist at Stanford University and one of the study’s authors, said that cells are naturally suited to be programmed by humans, who follow the code written in their DNA every day. “Any system that's receiving information, processing information, and then using that activity to control what happens next, you can think of as a computing system,” he told NPR.
The scientists call their new invention a “transcriptor,” because it replaces transistors’ usual electrons traveling along wires with RNA polymerase traveling along a strand of DNA. If a terminator ...
