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Nucleic Acids for Computation
Book chapter   Peer reviewed

Nucleic Acids for Computation

Joanne Macdonald and M N Stojanovic
Functional Nucleic Acids for Analytical Applications: Integrated Analytical Systems. Part 3, pp.355-375
Integrated Analytical Systems book series (ANASYS), Springer Science+Business Media
2009
url
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73711-9_14View
Published Version

Abstract

Medical Biochemistry and Metabolomics
Nucleic acids have many features that are ideal for molecular computation. Using nucleic acids, we have constructed a full set of molecular logic gates, with modular stem-loop-controlled deoxyribozymes as switches and single-stranded oligonucleotides as inputs and outputs. These gates have been combined to form basic computational circuits, including a half- and a full-adder, and can also be assembled into automata to perform complex computational tasks such as game playing. Our most advanced automaton to-date integrates more than 100 nucleic acid logic gates to play a complete game of tic-tac-toe encompassing 76 possible game plays. Inputs and outputs can also be coupled with upstream and downstream components, such as aptamers, sensors, secondary gate activation, and small-molecule release, indicating the potential for nucleic acid computation in the engineering of autonomous therapeutic and diagnostic molecular devices.

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