Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
circuit (this work is described in chapter 4). There was a burst of activity in
2000, when two papers appeared in the same issue of
Nature
—both seminal
contributions to the field. Elowitz and Leibler [10] described the construction
of an oscillator network that periodically caused a culture of
E. coli
to glow
by expressing a fluorescent protein. Crucially, the period of oscillation was
slower than the cell division cycle, indicating that the state of the oscillator is
transmitted from generation to generation. Gardner et al. [12] implemented a
genetic toggle switch in
E. coli
. The switch is flipped from one stable state to
another by either chemical or heat induction.
These single-cell experiments demonstrated the feasibility of implementing
artificial logical operations using genetic modification. Savageau [18] addressed
the issue of finding general design principles among microbial genetic circuits,
citing several examples. This theme is developed in Part II of the current volume
by establishing the field as a rigourous engineering discipline.
CONCLUSIONS
In this chapter we set the scene for what subsequently follows by providing an
introduction to the emerging field of cellular computing and by summarizing
some of some basic underlying biological principles. We traced the develop-
ment of the field, placing it in historical context and highlighting landmark
works. What was, until very recently, a field of theoretical interest has now
become a realistic engineering discipline. As Michael Simpson acknowledges
in chapter 5, this field is still at a very early stage in its development. The
challenges facing researchers are significant but by no means insurmountable.
If progress is to be made, it is clear that contributions will be needed from
many disciplines, including the subdisciplines of biology as well as computer
science, mathematics, engineering, and chemistry. This topic represents one
such multidisciplinary integration.
Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by the European Commission
IST network MolCoNet, contract number IST-2001-32008. Gerald Owenson was pre-
viously employed by the University of Warwick, UK.
References
[1] Leonard M. Adleman. Molecular computation of solutions to combinatorial prob-
lems.
Science
, 266:1021-1024, 1994.
[2] Martyn Amos. DNA computation. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science,
University of Warwick, UK, 1997.
[3] Martyn Amos, Paul E. Dunne, and Alan Gibbons. DNA simulation of Boolean
circuits. In John R. Koza, Wolfgang Banzhaf, Kumar Chellapilla, Kalyanmoym
