Cellular 'Computers' Gain a Hard Drive
        
            By Brendan Borrell, 
                Nature News
             | 11. 14. 2014
        
                    
                                    
                    
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                            
                              
    
  
  
    
  
          
  
      
    
             
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A new DNA-based recorder allows bioengineers to create cell cultures   that detect information in their environment and store it for later use.   Such 'designer' cells might in the future be used to monitor water   quality in a village, or measure the amount of sugar a person eats. The   technique is described this week in Science1.
 
  In synthetic biology,   genes are engineered to regulate each other's expression in such a way   that they can perform logic operations similar to those in computer   circuits. Memory storage has long been considered one of the key   components needed to fulfil the promise of this technology.
 
  “Building   gene circuits requires not only computation and logic, but a way to   store that information,” says bioengineer Timothy Lu of the   Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “DNA provides a very   stable form of memory and will allow us to do more complex computing   tasks.”
 
  In previous synthetic-biology attempts, data storage has been   laborious to create. It also recorded only the presence or absence of   one particular sensory input, and could be used...
 
 
  
 
    
    
  
   
                        
                                                                                
                 
                                                    
                            
                                  
    
  
  
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            Paula Amato & Shoukhrat Mitalipov
[OHSU News/Christine Torres Hicks]
On September 30th, a team of 21 scientists from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) published a significant paper in Nature Communications, with a scientifically accurate but, to many, somewhat abstruse headline:
Induction of experimental cell division to generate cells with reduced chromosome ploidy
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