Bioengineered DNA can Write and Rewrite Data in Cells?

Bioengineered DNA can Write and Rewrite Data in Cells?

| Peter Del Bosque | 05/21/2012 9:02PM

Medical advances have excelled within the last century due to the advancement of biotechnology. Scientists and medical doctors alike are now able to traverses the smallest nooks and crannies of the human body with the aid of fiber optic cameras and other types of optical probes. Scientists have also looked into trying to build a computer chip chat could travel throughout the human body to monitor vitals in real time. The problem with the computer chip idea is it's size. The technology has not been developed to produce a microscopic computer yet. In the mean time scientists have been looking for and developing less intrusive ways to monitor the human body from the inside.

Until just recently, scientists have discovered an ingenious way to create a biological medium for data storage that would have the ease of accessing any part of the human body. The medium is an actual snippet of DNA controlled by recombinant enzymes derived from viruses. The recombinant enzymes are used to switch the DNA on or off depending on the job.

The way this process of switching DNA on and off is not unlike that of ASCII binary computer code. The “0” and “1” represent one computer “bit”.

In an article with ScienceNews, they reported that an experiment with the infamous bacterium E-Coli or Escherichia coli, the bacterium used primarily as a symbiotic host within the digestive tracts of many animals, was experimented on. The group of scientists used the one-bit piece of data stroring DNA to influence the E-coli's natural flourescence. By switching between on and off, the scientists manipulated the e-coli's flourescence to change color back and fourth between green and red. This visual signal allowed the scientists to know in what direction the DNA had been switched.

Although this is only one “bit” of memory, the team is pursuing to create an 8-bit version. The drawback is that they predict the technology won't be available for quite a few years from now.

Fortunately, this scientific breakthrough has laid the foundation for an new era of technology. What was once science fiction as in Star Trek where Leonard H. McCoy aka “Bones” could scan the vitals of the human body - and in Star Wars where Qui-Gon Gin could scan Anakin Solo aka Darth Vader for midichlorians, we are one step closer to biocomputing.