| Abstract: | After billions of years of evolution, nature gifts us versatile biological machines with complicated and robust behaviors. Can we recapitulate the complexity of biology by de novo engineering biological systems? Can we integrate man-made knowledge or principles with the biological systems we try to build to achieve or go beyond the complexity of nature? The development of DNA nanotechnology has uncovered the uniqueness and the programmability of DNA molecules as a candidate for engineering complex molecular systems. In this talk, I will talk about the design principles for robust information processing. We developed molecular circuits with kinetic and thermodynamic barriers to undesired interactions including errors, and analyzed the trade-offs between desired and undesired behaviors. Secondly, I will talk about in-memory and parallel computation with information stored in DNA. We engineered programs for binary counting and (Turing universal) cellular automaton Rule 110. We also achieved random access of data and selective data erasure. These results advance our ability to rationally design and realize molecular information processing. |
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