Theoretical and Experimental DNA Computation (Natural Computing Series)

DNA computation has emerged in the last ten years as an exciting new - search ?eld at the intersection (and, some would say, frontiers) of computer science,biology,engineering,andmathematics.AlthoughanticipatedbyFe- man as long ago as the 1950s [59], the notion of performing computations at a molecular level was only realized in 1994, with Adleman’s seminal work [3] on computing with DNA. Since then the ?eld has blossomed rapidly, with signi?cant theoretical and experimental results being reported regularly. Several books [120, 39] have described various aspects of DNA compu- tion, but this is, to the author’s best knowledge, the ?rst to bring together descriptions of both theoreticaland experimentalresults.The targetaudience is intentionally broad, including students as well as experienced researchers. We expect that users of the book will have some background in either c- puter science, mathematics, engineering, or the life sciences. The intention is that this book be used as a tutorial guide for newcomers to the ?eld as well as a reference text for people already working in this fascinating area. To this end, we include two self-contained tutorial chapters (1 and 2), which convey only those aspects of computer science and biology that are required to understand the subsequent material.

This book provides a broad overview of the entire field of DNA computation, tracing its history and development. It contains detailed descriptions of all major theoretical models and experimental results to date, which are lacking in existing texts, and discusses potential future developments. This book will provide a useful reference source for researchers and students, as well as an accessible introduction for people new to the field.

The field of DNA computation has flourished since the publication of Adleman's seminal article, in which he demonstrated for the first time how a computation may be performed at a molecular level by performing standard operations on a tube of DNA strands. Since Adleman's original experiment, interest in DNA computing has increased dramatically. This monograph provides a detailed survey of the field, before describing recent theoretical and experimental developments. It concludes by outlining the challenges faced by researchers in the field and suggests possible future directions.