FIGURE 3. Experimental demonstration of diagnosis.

a, Regulation of competing transitions by pTRI-Xef mRNA (bar chart) representing an example molecular indicator. The gel shows positive (blue and pink) and negative (green) transition, each in both active and inactive states, the relative concentration of which is regulated by mRNA concentration. F, carboxyfluorescein; R, tetramethyl rhodamine; Y, Cy5. b, Validation of the diagnostic automata with the diagnostic rules for SCLC and prostate cancer (PC). Each lane shows the result of a diagnostic computation for the indicated combination of molecular indicators. The location of the initial, intermediate and output molecules is indicated on the left and a predicted trace of the diagnostic computations is shown on both sides. Some, but not all, intermediates are visible owing to their incomplete processing by the automaton. c, Parallel diagnosis of two disease models by two diagnostic automata. The diagnosed disease model contains the two indicators of SCLC checked by the diagnostic string PTTG1CDKN2A and the two indicators of prostate cancer checked by the string PIM1HPN. The gene CDKNA2 is another indicator for SCLC when overexpressed, and it is used here for technical reasons. The presence of indicators for each disease model as well as the expected diagnostic output by each automaton are indicated above the lanes.