EAGER: Synthesizing Signal Processing Functions with Biochemical Reactions

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This proposal addresses the synthesis of computations and signal processing operations in a novel context: protein-protein biochemistry where the inputs and outputs are quantities of different types of proteins. The project will demonstrate that biochemistry can implement simple and powerful digital signal processing (DSP) operations. Constructs like and decision feedback equalizers will be implemented: given input quantities of proteins, the system performs a decision to deliver a drug or not, adaptively and autonomously. Also band-pass filtering will be implemented: the quantity of output protein is a highly-tuned function of the frequency of the changes in the quantities of input proteins. Other DSP functions such as FFTs will be implemented. The design of such DSP functions will be investigated in an abstract framework, as a proof of concept. (At this time, the research will not attempt to address the experimental application of these ideas in vitro or in vivo). Techniques for analyzing the dynamics of biological systems are well established. However, synthesizing computation with such mechanisms requires new techniques ? and an entirely new mindset. Success in this endeavor will open numerous opportunities in fields such as biochemical sensing and drug delivery. An important goal of the project is to communicate the goals and the impetus for interdisciplinary research to a wide audience. A new graduate-level course will be developed, titled "Circuits, Computation, and Biology" offered jointly through the ECE Department and the new Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology Program at the University of Minnesota.