E. coli grows well in our gut, sometimes unfortunately, and contributes to scientific advances — in DNA, biofuels, and Pfizer ‘covid vaccine, to name a few. Now this highly sophisticated bacterium has a new way of life: it can solve the age-old problem of shared computers – dividing vital counts between different types of genetically engineered cells.
This breakthrough is a history of biology, which aims to improve biological circuitry such as electronic circuitry and to make cells as easy as computers.
Maze experimentt is part of what some researchers see as a viable option: instead of designing one type of cell for all functions, they produce several types of cells, each with different functions, to complete the function. Working together, these tiny insects can “calculate” and solve problems such as multidisciplinary networks in the wild.
At present, for better or for worse, the use of biological power has not been found, and it is frustrating for design experts. “Nature can do this (think brain), but die I do not know how to make such a complex thing out of biology, ”says Pamela Silver, a Harvard biologist.
The lesson is E. koli such as maze solvers, led by biophysicist Sangram Bagh at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata, is a simple and fun toy problem. But it also serves as evidence for computer-generated information between cells, demonstrating how computational complexity is solved in the same way. If the system works on a large scale, it can open up jobs related to everything from medicine to agriculture and space travel.
David McMillen, a bioengineer specialist at the University of Toronto, said: “As we begin to address the most complex problems with microbial systems, the dissemination of such products will be necessary to establish.”
How to make a bacterial maze
Find E. koli to solve the maze problem he combined some ingenuity. Bacteria did not pass through the palace’s well-trimmed courtyard. Instead, the bacteria analyzed various windows. Preparation: one maze on a test tube, and each maze made of different chemicals.
Drug recipes were removed from the 2 × 2 group representing the maze problem. The starting area on the left of the group is the beginning of the maze, and the bottom right is where it goes. Any area in this network can be open or closed, producing 16 possible maze.
Bagh and his mathematicians translated the problem into a true fabricated table 1s and 0s, indicating all possible changes. He then labeled the transformation in 16 different jars of four chemicals. The presence or absence of any drug is similar to whether a particular court is open or closed in this line.
The team produced several sets of a E. koli and various genetics that identified and analyzed the drug. Together, the mixed bacteria act as a shared computer; each group of cells performs the task of counting, correcting medical information and dealing with maze.
To run the experiment, researchers initially set it E. koli in 16 experimental tubes, they added various maze concoction compounds in each, leaving the bacteria to grow. After 48 hours, if E. koli did not realize the obvious way to cross it — that is, if the necessary chemicals were not available — then the system was black. If the correct combination of drugs was present, similar circles were lit “with” the bacteria all together showing fluorescent, yellow, red, blue or pink proteins, indicating responses. “If there is a way, the answer, the bacteria will shine,” says Bagh.
KATHAKALI SARKAR AND SANGRAM BAGH
What Bagh found interesting was that by going through all 16 windows, a E. koli provided real proof that only three can be eliminated. “Calculating this with math is not straightforward,” says Bagh. “With this experiment, you can easily see it.”
High goals
Bagh sees such natural computers that assist in word processing or steganography (a technique and science of encryption), which uses a maze to encrypt and to hide data, respectively. But its results are still consistent with its higher biological aspirations.
The idea of synthetic biology since the 1960s, but the work became more visible in 2000 with the creation of natural circles (in particular, change change and a oscillator) which enabled the cells to produce what they wanted or to do intelligently in their natural environment.