Importance of Biological computer mechanisms and could we make biological computers?
Biological computers are designed to be used for medical applications, They are special types of microcomputers, They are implantable devices that are used for tasks such as monitoring the body’s activities or inducing therapeutic effects, all at the molecular or cellular level, Many applications of biological and biomedical problem solving goes back to very beginnings of computer science, automata theory, and mathematical biology.
Biological Computers
Biological computers are a type of biosensors that have emerged as the interdisciplinary field that draws together molecular biology, chemistry, computer science, and mathematics, The structure of the biological molecules can enable DNA computers to outperform their electronic counterparts in the future.
The computer is an electronic device that is used to store, manipulate, and communicate information, perform complex calculations, or control or regulate other devices or machines, It can receive the information and process it by variable procedural instructions.
Bio-computing is one of the new fields in research that deals with computer science and biology, This enables the researcher to build an array of data accordingly, The development of bio-computers has been made possible by the expanding new science of nano-biotechnology, The term nano-biotechnology can be defined in multiple ways.
Biological computers
Nano-biotechnology means any type of technology that uses both nano-scale materials such as materials having characteristic dimensions of 1-100 nanometers, as well as biologically based materials, A more restrictive definition views nano-biotechnology more specifically as the design and engineering of proteins that can be assembled into the functional, larger structures.
Nano-biotechnology implementation allows scientists to engineer bio-molecular systems specifically so that they interact in a fashion that can ultimately result in the computational functionality of the computer.
Biological Computers pros
You can use the biological computer to identify all types of cellular activity and determine whether the particular activity is harmful or not, The cellular activities that the biological computer could detect can include those of mutated genes and all other activities of the genes found in the cells.
The biological computer works with an output and an input signal, The main inputs of the biological computer are the body’s proteins, RNA & the other specific chemicals that are found in the human cytoplasm, The output on the other hand could be detected using laboratory equipment.
Implantable biological computers can be used in many medical applications where intercellular evaluation and treatment are needed or required, It is useful in monitoring intercellular activity including the mutation of genes.
The doctor can focus on or find and treat only damaged or diseased cells, Selective cell treatment is made possible, Bio-computers made of RNA strands might serve as brains for producing biofuels from the cells, or to control smart drugs that medicate only under certain conditions.
The future for biological computing is bright, Biological computing is a young field that attempts to extract computing power from the collective action of large numbers of biological molecules, CPU being replaced by biological molecules remains in the far future.
The biological computer is a massively parallel machine where each processor consists of a single biological macromolecule, One part of the system can be made of biological and using current or new hardware that may become available, This would give us the combined benefit of both systems, It is a good idea to look to real biological systems for the solutions to particular problems.
DNA computer was used to find the only correct answer from over a million possible solutions to the computational problem, Before one can turn living organisms into computational systems, Biocomputing researchers need a way to create and connect multiple circuits switches, clocks, and so forth within a single cell.
When you use pre-programmed medical knowledge, The computer makes its diagnosis based on the detected RNA levels, In response to the cancer diagnosis, the output unit of the computer can initiate the controlled release of the single-stranded DNA molecule which is known to interfere with the cancer cell’s activities, causing it to self-destruct.
This can be a type of biosensor that can detect or target specific types of cells in the human body, It can carry out target-specific medicinal operations that could deliver medical procedures or remedies according to the doctor’s instructions.
Living organisms carry out complex physical processes under the direction of digital information, DNA is recognized as the most important molecule of living nature, The ability to store billions of data is an important feature of the DNA and hence to biological computing.
The human genome project is an effort at an international level, It is research directed at creating a map of human DNA, Molecular genetics is the best way to understand this project, Geneticists have used a technique called linkage analysis to determine how frequently different forms of two variable traits are inherited together i.e. not separated by recombination during meiosis.
While DNA can be measured in nanograms, the silicon chip is far behind when it comes to storage capacity, A single gram of DNA can store much information, CPU is replaced by DNA, The cell is considered a computational system and its program resides in DNA and its state in the distribution of chemical compounds & electrical charges.
Many problems such as many-body interaction calculations and statistical mechanics of the biological processes are due to benefits from the increasing access to the new generation of supercomputers and the diversity and complexity of computer applications in biology and medicine.
The biological computer performs millions of operations at the same time, It is good for parallel computing, It can use large amounts of working memory, 1 gram of DNA can hold 1 x 1014 MB of data, Or 145 trillion CDs, 1 CD is 800 MB.
Biological computer is cheaper, It is lightweight, 1 lb of DNA has more computing power than all computers ever made, Low power is used to keep it in the original state, It can solve the hardest problems in a matter of weeks, Biological computer has readily available materials, It is clean & environmentally friendly.
You can use the bio-computers to enhance certain abilities, The computers taking over Bio-computers will eventually have the capability to solve the problems on their own without human intervention but the computers today are not trustworthy at all times.
DNA computers known as the computational genes would be integrated into the genetic material already in patients’ cells, Computational genes are similar to ordinary gene DNA markers, They will be programmed to react to a certain input with a certain output.
DNA is the biological molecule that stores more genetic information, DNA is a favorite building block for molecular computations and biocomputers, DNA has been implemented in test tubes where well-designed species have been assembled and their emergent computational behavior was observed.
Biological Computers cons
The molecular operations are not perfect, and DNA computing involves a relatively large amount of error, As the size of the problem grows, the probability of receiving an incorrect answer eventually becomes greater than the probability of receiving the correct answer.
Sometimes there are errors in the pairing of DNA strands, Simple problems are solved faster on electronic computers, human assistance is required, Time-consuming lab procedures, No universal method of data representation, and DNA has a half-life.
Importance and uses of computer technology in pharmacy
