Synthesis of control unit for future biocomputer

• Published in: Journal of biological engineering Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 14
• Main Authors: Lin, Chun-Liang, Kuo, Ting-Yu, Li, Wei-Xian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 14.08.2018; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Arithmetic and logical unit; Automation; Biocomputers; Biosynthesis; Circuits; Computer engineering; Computer simulation; Construction; Control unit; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; E coli; Functional morphology; Gene expression; Genetic logic circuit; Information storage; Kernel functions; Logic; Logic circuits; Mathematics; Microprocessors; Modules; Molecular biology; Proteins; RNA polymerase; Silicon; Synthesis; Synthetic biology; Transcription factors; Control unit; Genetic logic circuit; Synthetic biology; Arithmetic and logical unit
• ISSN: 1754-1611; 1754-1611
• DOI: 10.1186/s13036-018-0109-4

Synthesis of a variety of biological circuits for specific functional purposes has made a tremendous progress in recent years. The ultimate goal of combining molecular biology and engineering is to realize a functional biocomputer. To address this challenge, all previous efforts work toward building up the bio-computer as the ultimate goal. To this aim, there should be a key module, named control unit (CU), to direct a serious of logic or arithmetic operations within the processor. This research task develops a bio-CU to work with a bio-ALU, which is realized from the combination of previously developed genetic logic gates to fulfill the kernel function of CPU as those done in the silicon computer. A possible framework of the bio-CPU has demonstrated how to connect a bio-CU with a bio-ALU to conduct a fetch-decode-execute cycle of a macro instruction. It presents not only capability of 4-bit full adder but coordination of related modules in biocomputer. We have demonstrated computer simulation for applications of the genetic circuits in biocomputer construction. It's expected to inspire follow-up study to synthesize potential configurations of the future biocomputer.