| Biological computer can be built by the yeast |
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 Genetically modified yeast cells can serve as building blocks of circuits. The result may be entirely new types of biological systems, showing Swedish researchers. Yeast can be used for far more than to bake and brew beer. Chalmers and Goteborg University produced today synthetic yeast cells that can handle everything from producing gas for the manufacture of expensive perfumes. Now, researchers have also succeeded in producing different types of yeast cells that can be used to do the same thing as building blocks of a computer AND OR, NAND and NOR gates. Even more complex circuits as a multiplexer has been constructed. Yeast does not work with normal electrical signals, rather than have the GM to respond to external stimuli in the form of a substance. It may be, for example sodium chloride or hormone oestradiol. In order to produce an AND gate is required when two different cell types. The output, a one, can be, for example light from a fluorescent protein. The contact between the cells has occurred by means of signaling molecules. But the researchers' aim is not primarily to build a biological computer that does the same thing as a normal computer. Instead, they plan to build sophisticated biological system in which the bodies own cells to help keep us healthy. - Our results show that it is possible to build complex systems of the genetically modified yeast cells, "says Kenaruro Furukawa, a researcher at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Goteborg University. - In future it is possible that such systems can be used to detect changes in pathological changes in the body or to make biosensors that detect toxic substances in our environment. The constructions of the yeast-based electronic circuits were made in collaboration with Spanish and German researchers. The results presented in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature. |
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