 SUBMITTED BY:

Eesha Singh
(I.T IV Year)
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  Biological computers use systems of biologically
derived molecules, such as DNA and proteins, to
perform computational calculations involving
storing, retrieving, and processing data.
 The result is small yet faster computer that operates
with great accuracy.
 Main biological component used in a Biological
Computer is :

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 DNA Stands for DeOxyRiboNucleic Acid.
 A hereditary material found in almost all living
organisms.
 Located inside the nucleus of a cell.
 Helps in long term storage of information.
 Information in DNA is stored as a code made of four
chemical bases (A,T,G & C).
 Order & sequence of these bases determine the kind
of information stored.

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 The two strands of DNA
molecule are anti parallel
where each strand runs in
opposite direction
 Complementary base pairs
Adenine(A) & Thymine(T)
Guanine(G) & Cytosine(C).
 Two strands are held together
by weak hydrogen bonds
between the base pairs.

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 DNA Computers are small, fast and highly efficient
computers which includes the following properties:-

 Dense data storage.

 Massively parallel computation.
 Extraordinary energy efficiency.

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 Moore’s Law states that the silicon microprocessor
double in complexity roughly every two years.
 One day this will no longer hold true when
miniaturization are reached. Intel scientist say it will
happen in about the year 2018.
 Require a successor to silicon.

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 Biological computers are made inside a patient's
body. The researchers or doctors merely provide
the patient's body with all of the necessary
information or a "blueprint" along which lines the
biological computer would be "manufactured.“
 Once the "computer's" genetic blueprint has been
provided, the human body will start to build it on
its own using the body's natural biological
processes and the cells found in the body.

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 As of today, reading signals produced by cell activity
is not yet possible due to technological limitations.
 But through the use of a tiny implantable biological
computer, these cellular signals could easily be
detected, translated and understood using existing
medical and laboratory equipment.
 Through boolean logic equations, a doctor or
researcher can easily use the biological computer to
identify all types of cellular activity and determine
whether a particular activity is harmful or not.

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 As with conventional computers, the biological
computer also works with an output and an input
signal.
 The main inputs of the biological computer are the
body's proteins, RNA,DNA and other specific
chemicals that are found in the human cytoplasm.
 The output on the other hand could be detected using
laboratory equipment.

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 DNA itself does not carry out any computation. It
rather acts as a massive memory.
 BUT, the way complementary bases react with each
other can be used to compute things.
 Proposed by Adleman in 1994.

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•Closely related to DNA
computing

•DNA strands embedded on a

chip (example to the right)

•Allows evaluation of
thousands of genetic material
samples

•Application: developing
disease treatments
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 This image shows 1 gram of
DNA on a C D. The C D can
hold 800 MB of data.
 The 1 gram of DNA can hold
about 1x1014 MB of data.
 The number of C Ds required
to hold this amount of
information, lined up edge to
edge, would circle the Earth
375 times, and would take
1630 centuries to listen to.
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 A test tube of DNA can contain trillions of strands.
Each operation on a test tube of DNA is carried out
on all strands in the tube in parallel !
 Check this out……. We Typically use

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 Modern supercomputers only operate at 109
operations per joule.
 Adleman figured his computer was running
2 x 1019 operations per joule.

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 often, the source or purpose
of a DNA sequence can be
determined by comparing it
with documented genetic
material
 several large databases are
available online
 tools for visualizing and/or
searching the databases are
also available
 e.g., the Ensemble site (
www.ensembl.org) contains
visualizations of the human
genome and other DNA
sequences
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• A computer made of neurons taken from leeches has been
created by US scientists. At the moment, the device can
perform simple sums - the team calls the novel calculator the
"leech-ulator".

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• But their aim is to devise a new generation of fast
and flexible computers that can work out for
themselves how to solve a problem, rather than
having to be told exactly what to do.

• “ Ordinary computers need absolutely correct

information every time to come to the right answer,"
he says. "We hope a biological computer will come
to the correct answer based on partial information, by
filling in the gaps itself."

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 Scientists developed tiny implantable biocomputers.
 Molecular devices remarkably precise scans of
cellular activity could revolutionize medicine
 Researchers at Harvard and Princeton universities
have taken a crucial step toward building biological
computers, tiny implantable devices that can monitor
the activities and characteristics of human cells. The
information provided by these “molecular doctors,”
constructed entirely of DNA, RNA, and proteins,
could eventually revolutionize medicine by directing
therapies only to diseased cells or tissues.
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 DNA computers are not completely accurate at this
moment in time.
 During an operation, there is a 95% chance a
particular DNA molecule will ‘compute’ correctly.
Would cause a problem with a large amount of
operations.
 DNA has a half-life.
 Solutions could dissolve away before the end result
is found.

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 DNA computer must aim to be compatible with
seven environments to succeed.
▪ Intrapsychic – Already complies since it has
been conceptualised!
▪ Construction/manufacture – This will be
answered in time.
▪ Adoption – Should inherit customer base of
silicon computers.

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▪ Use – Already seen the potential for this.
▪ Failure – Inherits this from silicon
microprocessors.
▪ Scrapping – Cleaner to dispose of than current
microprocessors.
▪ Political/ecological – Could face opposition
from technophobes.

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 Conventional Biological

Component Inorganic, e.g. silicon Biological, e.g.

materials DNA
Processing scheme Sequential and limited Massively parallel
massively parallel
Current max. 1012 Op.s per sec. 1014 Op.s per sec.
operations
Quantum ef f ects a Yes No
problem?
Toxic components? Yes No
Energy ef f icient? No Yes

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 Can be a general purpose tool for a variety of
problems
 Many possible applications:
 Pattern recognition
 Cryptography
 Evaluating gene sequence
 Medical Application: ‘developing disease’ treatments
such as cancer

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 Taiwan introduced the world's first DNA
authentication chip & was used for national
identification cards in order to crack down on
frauds using fake ID cards. 

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Parallel Computing- Biological computers are
massively parallel.

Incredibly light weight- With only 1 LB of DNA you

have more computing power than all the computers ever
made.

Low power- The only power needed is to keep DNA

from denaturing.

Solves Complex Problems quickly- A DNA computer

can solve hardest of problems in a matter of weeks.
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• Perform millions of operations simultaneously.

• Generate a complete set of potential solutions.

• Efficiently handle massive amounts of working

memory.

• Cheap, clean, readily available materials.

• Amazing ability to store information.

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•Error: Molecular operations are not perfect.

•Efficiency: How many molecules contribute?

•Encoding problem in molecules is difficult

•DNA computing involves a relatively large amount

of error.

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•As size of problem grows, probability of receiving
incorrect answer eventually becomes greater than
probability of receiving correct answer

•Reliability- There is sometime errors in the pairing of

DNA strands

•DNA in vitro decays through time, so lab procedures

should not take too long.

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Algorithm used by Adleman for the traveling salesman
problem was simple. As technology becomes more
refined, more efficient algorithms may be discovered.

DNA Manipulation technology has rapidly improved

in recent years, and future advances may make DNA
computers more efficient.

The University of Wisconsin is experimenting with

chip-based DNA computers. 30
DNA computers showing enormous potential,
especially for medical purposes as well as data
processing applications.

Still a lot of work and resources required to develop it

into a fully fledged product.

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It will take years to develop a practical, workable
Biological Computer.

But… Let’s all hope that this DREAM comes true!!!

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