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Nature 429, 351-352 (27 May 2004) | doi:10.1038/429351a
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International PhD Programme
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
- Cambridge, UK
Assistant Professor
- University of Texas
- Austin TX United States
Automata make antisense
Anne Condon1
Abstract
Information-carrying DNA strands can be used to perform simple computations, but have so far been little more than toys. Can molecular computers be more broadly useful — in medicine, for instance?
People have long been fascinated with automata, fashioning them from any available materials to create mechanical creatures or musical devices, or to carry out simple computations. The materials used have even included biological molecules: in 2001, for instance, Yaakov Benenson and colleagues1 built a tiny automaton from DNA strands and enzymes.
- Anne Condon is in the Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia, 2366 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Email: condon@cs.ubc.ca
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