PHOTO: Till Korten
(February 26, 2016) Discovery
opens doors to creation of biological supercomputers that are about the size of
a book
The substance that provides energy to all the cells in our
bodies, Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), may also be able to power the next
generation of supercomputers. That is what an international team of researchers
led by Prof. Nicolau, the Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at McGill,
believe.
They’ve published an article on the subject this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), in which they describe
a model of a biological computer that they have created that is able to process
information very quickly and accurately using parallel networks in the same way
that massive electronic super computers do.
Except that the model bio supercomputer they have created is
a whole lot smaller than current supercomputers, uses much less energy, and
uses proteins present in all living cells to function.
Doodling on the back
of an envelope
“We’ve managed to create a very complex network in a very
small area,” says Dan Nicolau, Sr. with a laugh. He began working on the idea
with his son, Dan Jr., more than a decade ago and was then joined by colleagues
from Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands, some 7 years ago. “This started as a
back of an envelope idea, after too much rum I think, with drawings of what
looked like small worms exploring mazes.”
The model bio-supercomputer that the Nicolaus (father and
son) and their colleagues have created came about thanks to a combination of
geometrical modelling and engineering knowhow (on the nano scale). It is a
first step, in showing that this kind of biological supercomputer can actually
work.
The circuit the researchers have created looks a bit like a
road map of a busy and very organized city as seen from a plane. Just as in a
city, cars and trucks of different sizes, powered by motors of different kinds,
navigate through channels that have been created for them, consuming the fuel
they need to keep moving.