Molecular Doctors Could Read Cellular Signals

Diagnostic "computers" made of DNA, RNA and proteins could someday be programmed to respond to cellular changes -- such as the expression of genes linked to cancer -- by releasing into the bloodstream molecules that can be detected by a simple test.

“Currently, we have no tools for reading cellular signals,” Benenson says. “These biocomputers can translate complex cellular signatures, such as activities of multiple genes, into a readily observed output. They can even be programmed to automatically translate that output into a concrete action, meaning they could either be used to label a cell for a clinician to treat or they could trigger therapeutic action themselves.”

The research, conducted at Princeton and Harvard, is still at the cells-in-a-dish stage, but it's a great idea.

In a first, scientists develop tiny implantable biocomputers [Harvard University Gazette]