Semiconductor synthetic biology: a new pathway towards biocomputing

Abstract

Semiconductor synthetic biology (SemiSynBio) is an emerging field with the aim of exploring distinctive advantages of biological system to tackle computational hard problems. SemiSynBio-Biocomputing solves computational problems using cells or tissue level bio-inspired system or devices. This new pathway explores the potential of biological computing systems and overcomes limits of traditional semiconductor technology, driven by the exponentially growing demand for high-performance, energy-efficient computing resource. This review provides a comprehensive overview of biocomputing at DNA/RNA-level and cell/tissue-level. SemiSynBio-Biocomputing builds an integrated system consisting with physiological processes, internal network interfaces and cross-talks among cells or tissues. The primary objective is to develop design methodologies to utilize cellular-scale networks and their natural communication capabilities and bypass the constrains of traditional algorithmic computation. The biological performance at cell/tissue-level offers a robust pathway to achieve self-organizing, self-repairing, resilient, distributed and adaptive biological computing systems, making it possible to construct a bio-computer with a variety of applications. Future directions focus on exploring the architecture for information processing and storage within biocomputing applications, particularly those with non-Von Neumann configurations. SemiSynBio opens up a new pathway towards biocomputing and is expected to address increasingly complex problems and applications, serving as a foundational platform for next generation bio-computers.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

semiconductor synthetic biology / biocomputing / cell/tissue-level / cells-on-chip / hybrid impedance

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