Dibs on a RNA Computer

BY KIM BELLARD I’ve given DNA a lot of love over the years — DNA as a storage medium, as a computing platform, as the basis for robots, as the tool for synthetic biology/biohacking, even used for the DNA-of-Things (DoT).   DNA is the basis for all life as we know it, in every category of life we’ve found anywhere on earth. That we are now using it to achieve technological goals seems like one of humankind’s greatest accomplishments. But where’s the love for RNA, DNA’s putative ancestor and still-partner?  A few recent developments in RNA caught my eye that I wanted to give their due. As you may remember from high school biology, RNA has a crucial role in how DNA transmits genetic information.  As one source explains it: “DNA holds information, but it generally does not actively apply that information. DNA does not make things.”  Instead, it transcribes the information onto RNA, which then actually makes things happen.   Just last week researchers from Northwestern University were able to show RNA switching genes off and on, using a simulation model they “affectionately” call R2D2 (short for “reconstructing RNA dynamics from data”).  The researchers believe the “strand displacement” mechanism is what switches genes “on” or “off.”   Professor Julius B. Lucks, who co-led the research, believes: “Many diseases are likely caused by something going awry at the RNA level.&...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Tech Source Type: blogs