Hello World in Synthetic Biology

Hello World in Synthetic Biology

Overview

Computation is occurring in biology that is extremely similar to silicon based computation if not exactly the same but using different symbols, instructions, etc...

Silicon Based Computation to Biology Based Computation Comparison

Concept	Silicon	Biology	Notes	Exceptions	Examples
CPU	CPU	Cell	It is possible to use nerves for computation but these are also cells	None	E-coli, Yeast
Machine Language	0/1	21 amino acids	DNA only uses 4 amino acids CGAT but proteins use all of the amino acids	None	GFP (fluorescing protein)
Fetch, Execute, Write CPU Cycle	CPU toggles address bus with ram address, latches bits into cpu registers (fetch), opcode is analyzed and processed through arithmetic logic unit (execute), CPU toggles bus with ram address and bits to write to ram (write)	Protein binds to cell surface receptor and enter cell via endocytosis then goes into nucleus of cell (fetch), protein binds to gene promotion area causing protein to be transcribed (execute), transcribed protein exits cells via exocytosis (write)	Look at biology central dogma	A virus could alter dna, not all proteins exit the cell, some rattle around causing other genes to express doing further computation until the final protein exits the cell	Often proteins are tagged with a fluorescing protein so that if the protein is expressed it will fluoresce. There are now infrared proteins so you can see what is happening inside a cell through flesh in realtime!
Graphic Processor/Numerical Processor	Nvidia graphic processor	Retina	Rods and cones turn light into electrical signals which go through massive signal processing before sent to optical nerve	None	Human retina