Rate-independent constructs for chemical computation.
This paper presents a collection of computational modules implemented with chemical reactions: an inverter, an incrementer, a decrementer, a copier, a comparator, and a multiplier. Unlike previous schemes for chemical computation, ours produces designs that are dependent only on coarse rate categories for the reactions ("fast" vs. "slow"). Given such categories, the computation is exact and independent of the specific reaction rates. We validate our designs through stochastic simulations of the chemical kinetics. Although conceptual for the time being, our methodology has potential applications in domains of synthetic biology such as biochemical sensing and drug delivery. We are exploring DNA-based computation via strand displacement as a possible experimental chassis.
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. senu0004@umn.edu
Phillip
P
Senum
Marc
M
Riedel
D019295:Computational Biology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D039301:Computers, Molecular / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D013269:Stochastic Processes