20.20/Biocomputing

Vision

To develop novel models of computation appropriate to the biological world.

Team Members

20.20 Students

• Kelly Drinkwater
• Raphael Rush
• Star Simpson

20.902 Students

• Kay Aull
• Stephanie Nix

Brainstorming

• Biological neural nets
• DNA-encoded Turing machine
• Adder circuit
• PCR readout for genetic switches
• Addressable DNA modification based on RNA input
• Fix scaling issues
• RNA binding screens

Directory of Interesting Things

A DNA and Restriction Enzyme Implementation of Turing Machines

A Dicer-like protein in Tetrahymena has distinct functions in genome rearrangement, chromosome segregation, and meiotic prophase

The Neurally Controlled Animat: Biological Brains Acting with Simulated Bodies

Ron Weiss's web page. He also wrote a really interesting review paper a few years back on the subject. I can't remember where it is...

Computing with DNA. Shortish review in Nature by Jack Parker, describing Adleman's traveling-salesman solver and Shapiro's Turing-machine-oid.