Final Report Summary - BIOMOLECULAR_COMP (Biomolecular computers)
Biological computers:
The intersection of computer science and molecular biology is a fertile ground for new and exciting science. Two notable examples of this are molecular computing and molecular programming. Molecular computing is the use of molecules, and typically biological molecules, to create programmable autonomous computing devices. Whereas molecular programming is the use of computer programming languages to describe, simulate, analyse and even engineer the behavior of molecular systems, and typically systems made of biological molecules. Recently the two fields and communities have joined forces, as evidenced by the recent Workshop on Molecular Computing and Programming that took place in Denmark earlier this year and by a recent publication in Nature Nanotechnology by Seelig and colleagues, that utilized and integrated the most advanced methods of the two fields.
Our lab made significant contributions to the emergence and the development of these two, initially independent, research directions.
Cell Lineage Analysis
Our lab laid the conceptual, mathematical, and practical foundations for the reconstruction of cell lineage trees of higher organisms utilizing the phylogenetic analysis of the genomes of individual cells.
The approach has been gaining broader recognition and acceptance, as evidenced by the international high-quality team that joined and supported the Human Cell Lineage Flagship Initiative (see www.lineage-flagship.eu).
While the preliminary results from our capillary-electrophoresis based system were illuminating, we believe the full impact of the approach will be realized upon the deployment of the microfluidics/NGS based cell lineage analysis methods currently under development in our lab.
The intersection of computer science and molecular biology is a fertile ground for new and exciting science. Two notable examples of this are molecular computing and molecular programming. Molecular computing is the use of molecules, and typically biological molecules, to create programmable autonomous computing devices. Whereas molecular programming is the use of computer programming languages to describe, simulate, analyse and even engineer the behavior of molecular systems, and typically systems made of biological molecules. Recently the two fields and communities have joined forces, as evidenced by the recent Workshop on Molecular Computing and Programming that took place in Denmark earlier this year and by a recent publication in Nature Nanotechnology by Seelig and colleagues, that utilized and integrated the most advanced methods of the two fields.
Our lab made significant contributions to the emergence and the development of these two, initially independent, research directions.
Cell Lineage Analysis
Our lab laid the conceptual, mathematical, and practical foundations for the reconstruction of cell lineage trees of higher organisms utilizing the phylogenetic analysis of the genomes of individual cells.
The approach has been gaining broader recognition and acceptance, as evidenced by the international high-quality team that joined and supported the Human Cell Lineage Flagship Initiative (see www.lineage-flagship.eu).
While the preliminary results from our capillary-electrophoresis based system were illuminating, we believe the full impact of the approach will be realized upon the deployment of the microfluidics/NGS based cell lineage analysis methods currently under development in our lab.