KEMO'S JOURNAL

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Computing With DNA

"Human beings are more or less like a computer."

Jian-Jun Shu, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Nanyang Technical University in Singapore, has been working with his students, Qi-Wen Wang and Kian-Yan Yong, at Nanyang Technical University to propose a way that the manipulation of DNA strands could be used to solve certain types of problems. The computations that the human body performs naturally are much faster than even the fastest silicon-based computer. On top of that, Shu points out, silicon is not very environmentally friendly. “There are also heat problems. DNA-based computing could be faster, friendlier for the environment, and eliminate some of the other problems that come with silicon.” DNA-based computing could prove especially useful for strategic assignment problems. “Even with developments in silicon-based computing, there are some problems that take even the fastest computers months to solve,” Shu says. With DNA-based computing, massive parallel problems, combinatorial problems and AI solving problems could all be addressed with the possibility of greater efficiency. “Silicon-based computing relies on a binary system,” Shu explains. “With DNA-based computing, you can do more than have ones and zeroes. DNA is made up of A, G, C, T, which gives it more range. DNA-based computing has the potential to deal with fuzzy data, going beyond digital data.” Shu and his students manipulated strands of DNA at the strand level and at the test tube level.

They found that they could fuse strands together, as well as cut them, and perform other operations that would affect the ability of the DNA to compute.

In this model, DNA molecules are used to store information that can be used for computational purposes.

Kemo D. 7