Blog Comments

Kinetica Online is pleased to provide direct links to commentaries from our senior editor Dr. Steven Pelech has posted on other blogs sites. Most of these comments appear on the GenomeWeb Daily Scan website, which in turn highlight interesting blogs that have been posted at numerous sites in the blogosphere since the beginning of 2010. A wide variety of topical subjects are covered ranging from the latest scientific breakthroughs, research trends, politics and career advice. The original blogs and Dr. Pelech’s comments are summarized here under the title of the original blog. Should viewers wish to add to these discussions, they should add their comments at the original blog sites.

The views expressed by Dr. Pelech do not necessarily reflect those of the other management and staff at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation. However, we wish to encourage healthy debate that might spur improvements in how biomedical research is supported and conducted.

DNA Computers

The Cellular CPU

The Economist reported that researchers are hard at work trying to write code made of DNA and RNA to program a living cell in order to control it. Microsoft researcher Luca Cardelli told the magazine that "if you can program events at a molecular level in cells, you can cure or kill cells which are sick or in trouble and leave the other ones intact." S. Pelech finds it amusing to see a business magazine promoting to the general public hare-brain ideas from computer software programmers about how to genetically engineer cells by mucking with their DNA to create molecular logic circuits. It may be possible to design DNA-based computers that solve the most simple of problems within test tubes or in in silico simulations, but not for the applications contemplated in this Economist article. Read More...