Current research

Information processing is a key feature of living systems. The first models of computation and indeed the first computers were inspired by the workings of individual neurons and the brain. Paradoxically, due to the ubiquity of electronic computers, nowadays we associate computing exclusively with man-made machines. In the last two decades, the wheel has turned full circle with the efforts to engineer information-processing systems using molecular building blocks. Some of these systems were genetically-encoded and shown to compute in living cells.

Computing with molecular information in a living environment is a fundamental capability that has the potential to revolutionize multiple aspects of basic and applied life science, in the same way conventional computing revolutionized all branches of engineering. In our work, we strive to further develop and expand the tools of biological computing and apply these tools to unmet needs in basic biology, biotechnology and biomedicine.

Further reading: external page Y. Benenson. Biomolecular computing systems: principles, progress and potential. Nature Reviews Genetics, 2012