Genetic Circuits Perform Logic Operations & Remember Results To Pass Them On To Next Generations

Say hello to the 'Genetic Circuits' which can act not only as your regular AND / OR logic gates, but also retain the result and pass it on to future generations. Engineering team from MIT's electrical, CS & biological engineering departments have succeeded in creating genetic circuits in bacterial cells that can redefine the future of computing by combining both logic & memory. Assistant professor Timothy Lu, who's the author of paper on '<i>Nature Biotechnology' </i>says that the most of the research work so far has been concentrated on modules that encode memory. Their new 'framework' will help bolster the next wave of computing which will be more complex and require combination of memory & logic.

[caption id="attachment_45975" align="aligncenter" width="368"] Image Credit: LIANG ZONG AND YAN LIANG[/caption]

In most of the earlier created genetic circuits, the result would be forgotten almost when the original input signal was withdrawn. But these new circuits developed by Lu and team can retain the result permanently. The circuits may potentially be used in long-term environmental sensors & controls, biomanufacturing or programming the stem cells. Read more about the research on the source link.

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