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Harnessing virus for cutting edge 'Bi-Fi'
Wednesday October 03, 2012 08:18:34 AM,
IANS
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Washington:
Bio-engineers are harnessing the key attributes of a virus, M13,
such as its ability to package and broadcast arbitrary DNA
strands, to create the first biological internet or 'Bi-Fi.'
Bio-engineering researchers Monica Ortiz and Drew Endy from
Stanford University have created a biological mechanism to send
genetic messages from cell to cell.
The system boosts the complexity and amount of data that can be
communicated between cells and could lead to greater control of
biological functions within cell communities, the Journal of
Biological Engineering reports.
Biological internet could lead to biosynthetic factories in which
huge masses of microbes collaborate to make more complicated
fuels, pharmaceuticals and other useful chemicals, including the
regeneration of tissue or organs in future, according to a
Stanford statement.
Ortiz was even able to broadcast her genetic messages between
cells separated by a gelatinous medium at a distance greater than
seven centimetres.
"That's very long-range communication, cellularly speaking," she
said.
M13 is a packager of genetic messages. It reproduces within its
host, taking strands of DNA -- strands that engineers can control
-- wrapping them up one by one and sending them out encapsulated
within proteins produced by M13 that can infect other cells.
Once inside the new hosts, they release the packaged DNA message.
The M13-based system is essentially a communication channel. It
acts like a wireless Internet connection that enables cells to
send or receive messages, but it does not care what secrets the
transmitted messages contain.
"Effectively, we've separated the message from the channel. We can
now send any DNA message we want to specific cells within a
complex microbial community," said Ortiz, who led the study.
It is well-known that cells naturally use various mechanisms,
including chemicals, to communicate, but such messaging can be
extremely limited in both complexity and bandwidth.
Simple chemical signals are typically both message and messenger
-- two functions that cannot be separated.
"If your network connection is based on sugar then your messages
are limited to 'more sugar,' 'less sugar,' or 'no sugar'"
explained Endy.
Cells engineered with M13 can be programmed to communicate in much
more complex, powerful ways than ever before. In harnessing DNA
for cell-cell messaging the researchers have also greatly
increased the amount of data they can transmit at any one time. In
digital terms, they have increased the bit rate of their system.
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