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Playing to win at DNA computation

Nature Biotechnology volume 21, pages 1013–1015 (2003)Cite this article

An automaton built with DNA enzymes plays tic-tac-toe against human players.

Adleman's1 seminal 1994 insight that computation could be encoded in DNA set off a raft of speculation on such topics as whether massively parallel DNA computations might one day break the data encryption standard2,3. However, the utility of DNA computation can be evaluated to some extent by the level of its adoption, and in the years following Adleman's brilliant insights, few if any applications for DNA computing have been realized. Accordingly, the development of a DNA machine that plays tic-tac-toe might be seen as the paramount impracticality in a field that has so far been more hype than substance4. To the contrary, the work by Stojanovic and Stefanovic5 in this issue provides a fascinating new application for the computational abilities of DNA in the form of nucleic acid enzymes that can interpret multiple simultaneous substrates and perhaps eventually be used to reprogram cellular metabolism.

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Figure 1: Representative game board and computational deoxyribozymes.

©Rebecca Henretta

Figure 2: Signal tranduction pathway via protein or nucleic acid.

©Rebecca Henretta

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A4800, Austin, 78712, Texas, USA

    Jeffrey J Tabor & Andrew D Ellington

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  1. Jeffrey J Tabor
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  2. Andrew D Ellington
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Tabor, J., Ellington, A. Playing to win at DNA computation. Nat Biotechnol 21, 1013–1015 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0903-1013

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