Collaborative Research: The Molecular Programming Project

使RNA和DNA等生物聚合物分子适应有意义的计算任务和目的的潜力很大。使用新的算法和软件类似物对分子进行编程的能力比目前大许多个数量级，这有可能改变我们分析、理解和操纵分子系统的方式。它可以在材料、纳米生物技术、组织工程、再生医学和许多其他新兴领域的广泛国家倡议中产生对社会有重大好处的实际应用。这一雄心勃勃的探险计划解决了一个令人兴奋的挑战，即为创建大规模分子计划制定最初的基础步骤。这项实验技术探索旨在开发一个功能抽象层次，以创建分子编程语言、编译器、工具和模型；一个分析和设计分子程序的理论框架；利用比目前高出一个数量级的组件规模的分子程序来验证上述内容；以及在现实世界应用中测试已开发的分子编程技术。这种高风险/高回报的研究将增加我们对计算和物理世界之间的关系、分子如何存储和处理信息以及可以计算和制造什么的可能性和局限性的理解。外展活动包括夏季本科生和少数族裔学生研究奖学金、K-12访问日、新兵训练营、研讨会和许多其他努力，以创建更广泛的分子编程研究社区。

There is great potential for adapting biopolymer molecules such as RNA and DNA to meaningful computational tasks and purposes. Having the ability to program molecules at many orders of magnitude larger scale than at present using new algorithms and software analogues has the potential to change the way we analyze, understand and manipulate molecular systems. It can lead to practical applications of significant benefit to society across a wide range of national initiatives in materials, nano-biotechnology, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and many other emerging areas. This ambitious Expedition addresses the exciting challenge of developing initial foundational steps toward creating large-scale molecular programs. This experimental technology Expedition aims to develop a functional abstraction hierarchy to create molecular programming languages, compilers, tools and models; a theoretical framework for the analysis and design of molecular programs; validation of the above utilizing molecular programs with orders of magnitude higher scale of components than at present; and testing of the developed molecular programming technologies on real-world applications. This high-risk/high-payoff research will increase our understanding of the relationship between computation and the physical world, how information can be stored and processed by molecules, and the possibilities and limits of what can be computed and fabricated. Outreach includes summer undergraduate and minority student research fellowships, K-12 visiting days, boot camps, workshops and many other efforts to create a broader molecular programming research community.