Scientists have used a computer to "talk" to yeast in a Zurich laboratory. In the conversation, the researchers created a communication loop between regular brewers yeast and a computer, giving control to the computer over protein production in the yeast cell. This "feedback control" between the computer and the yeast is the first of its kind and opens the door to use a computer to manage genetically altered microorganisms.
ANALYSIS: Meet the Fuel of the Future: Bugs
In 2002, a study in Nature Biotechnology found that when a red light was shone onto basic yeast (called Saccharomyces cerevisiae), it would become active and produce a protein. A deeper red light would deactivate the cells.
Now the team has taken the research a step farther by tying a "reporter molecule" to a gene that activates the production of the protein. When the yeast begins protein production, the fluorescent reporter molecule actives as well. This molecule can be seen by a computer to confirm that the yeast are active. Once the desired level of protein is reached, the computer can flash a deeper red light, deactivating the yeast.
Using this "feedback control" system, the mechanism of control is moved outside of the cell to the computer, which controls the level of protein production in these S. cerevisiaei cells.
The science is complex, but the idea is straightforward; computerized control of a bacteria could revolutionize biotechnology. Bacteria are used for a number of industrial purposes, from making pharmaceutical products to creating biofuels to digesting trash. By shining lights onto the cells, computers could maximize this bacteria activity.
"There are many people who have tried to do things like this by, for example, coding in the cell itself a synthetic circuit, putting genes and mechanisms in the cell," said John Lygeros at the Automatic Control Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich told the BBC.
In the past, scientists have used complex "genetic trickery to accomplish similar goals," said Lygeros. Now, rather than using "genetic trickery," they use this external controller. With this new system, scientists hope to create a more stable system.
ANALYSIS: How Bacteria Clean Up Nuclear Waste
Once the communication was established, Professor Lygeros commented it was not simply an on-off switch. He told the BBC, "The fluorescence is not the only thing -- there are half a dozen chemical reactions involved in this process… Experimentally, it's a fairly challenging thing to do."
Implications abound with this technology. Once computers can control cell production and turn genes on and off, the door is open to creating to control production and replication in larger cell groups (read: animals, humans). Someday, we may be able to use technology like this to grow new organs, create stem cells or even tell the brain to rebuild and repair itself.
The paper was published in Nature Biotechnology.
Image: iStockPhoto
Tags: Biotechnology, Computers, Microbiology
comments ( )