How to Make a Computer From a Living Cell

Genetic logic gates will enable biologists to program cells for chemical production and disease detection.

If biologists could put computational controls inside living cells, they could program them to sense and report on the presence of cancer, create drugs on site as theyre needed, or dynamically adjust their activities in fermentation tanks used to make drugs and other chemicals. Now researchers at Stanford University have developed a way to make genetic parts that can perform the logic calculations that might someday control such activities.