[Pl-seminar] 10/20: Ehud Shapiro, Biomolecular Computers

[Ken Shan]

[Please forward this announcement!  Apologies for multiple copies.]

The Harvard Artificial Intelligence Research Group announces

			   BIOMOLECULAR COMPUTERS

A talk by

		Ehud Shapiro, Weizmann Institute of Science

		 11:45am-12:45pm, Thursday October 20, 2003
                  Maxwell Dworkin 221, Harvard University
                         (see below for logistics)

Computers made of biological molecules, being very different from electronic
computers, shed a new light on basic concepts such as the standard division
between hardware and software and the relationship between information,
computation, and energy.  In addition, biomolecular computers hold the
promise of easy interface to the patient's biochemical environment, which
may allow them to sense and diagnose disease-related biochemical anomalies
at the cell or tissue level and, using pre-programmed medical knowledge,
synthesize and deliver the requisite drug molecules in situ.

In the talk we review the vision driving our research on biomolecular
computers as well as our first steps towards realizing it.  We describe a
molecular automaton developed in our lab, in which the input, output and
software are made of DNA and the hardware consists of DNA manipulating
enzymes, and another automaton, in which the DNA input molecule provides
both the data and all the necessary fuel for the computation.

LOGISTICS: Lunch will be served; if you plan to attend this talk
but do not usually attend AIRG meetings, please inform Kobi Gal
<gal at eecs.harvard.edu> by Wednesday, so we have enough food.  Maxwell
Dworkin Laboratory is located at 33 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Subway and driving directions and a campus map are available online at
http://www.deas.harvard.edu/aboutdeas/ourcampus/deasbuildsandmaps/ . Parking
is available for bicycles and motor vehicles; please email Chung-chieh Shan
<ccshan at eecs.harvard.edu> for details.

-- 
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Chemistry Week 2003-11-07/16 http://www.rsc.org/lap/publicaf/chemweek.htm
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