Scripps Research and Technion
Scientists Develop Biological Computer to Encrypt and Decipher Images
(February 11, 2012) Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute
in California and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology have developed a
“biological computer” made entirely from biomolecules that is capable of
deciphering images encrypted on DNA chips. Although DNA has been used for
encryption in the past, this is the first experimental demonstration of a
molecular cryptosystem of images based on DNA computing.
The study was published in a
recent online-before-print edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie.
Instead of using traditional
computer hardware, a group led by Professor Ehud Keinan of Scripps Research and
the Technion created a computing system using bio-molecules. When suitable
software was applied to the biological computer, it could decrypt, separately,
fluorescent images of The Scripps Research Institute and Technion logos.