Molecular computation of solutions to combinatorial problems

Science. 1994 Nov 11;266(5187):1021-4. doi: 10.1126/science.7973651.

Abstract

The tools of molecular biology were used to solve an instance of the directed Hamiltonian path problem. A small graph was encoded in molecules of DNA, and the "operations" of the computation were performed with standard protocols and enzymes. This experiment demonstrates the feasibility of carrying out computations at the molecular level.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Base Sequence
  • DNA* / chemistry
  • Mathematical Computing*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Oligodeoxyribonucleotides* / chemistry
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

  • Oligodeoxyribonucleotides
  • DNA