OLYMPUS TECHNOZONE Vol.54 2002-08
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INDEX
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The history of the DNA computer and the genome medical business
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Prototype
DNA computer for genetic analysis.
All
processes from sample insertion to the completion of quantitative
reactions are fully automated. The system provides extremely fast,
accurate and low-cost measurement of gene expression amount. It was
announced in late January 2001.
(Click on image to expand it) |
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About two years after our first meeting, Dr.
Suyama told us that robotic technology could be used to automate
the process. A year later he informed us that he had succeeded.
When I visited his laboratory, there was indeed a machine there.
The system that we had put together in our
laboratory was in fact the first DNA computer.
Dr. Suyama often talked to me about his idea.
It seemed extremely difficult, and our collaborative research was
focused primarily on probe design algorithms. In February 2001
Mr. Makino took to NovusGene Inc. (*3) with the DNA probe design
algorithm as the interim result from the genome informatics project.
The technology would be used to give additional impetus to the
genome medical business.
Dr. Suyama was also making further progress in this research, and it was now
becoming possible to use the DNA computer for gene analysis. Olympus was very
excited about the concept and its prospect. We wanted to build a DNA computer
system, and to automate the process more effectively. It was decided that our
Research Group for the Genome Medical Business Promotion Project should start
to work in earnest on the DNA computer. We formally designated it as a research
theme and drew up a proposal. After almost a year of hard work, we were able
to turn the system that had been put together in Dr. Suyama's laboratory into
a fully automated robot. It was that system that we announced in January of this
year.
I never thought of using the DNA computer for biotechnology
research. My initial idea came from a mathematical perspective. I wanted to use
a massively parallel computing system based on DNA molecules to solve problems
that were beyond the capacity of electronic computers.
So the computer originated from a mathematical concept?
Yes. That was also the aim of Leonard Adleman, the computer
scientist who first came up with the DNA computer concept. DNA computer research
began with the publication of Adleman's research paper in the November 1994 issue
of Science. The aim of that research was to create a system capable of parallel
computing on a scale of 10 to the power of multiples of 10. No electronic computer
can carry out massively parallel computation on this level. We took a similar
approach in an effort to overcome a variety of complex problems. However, the
Adleman method requires substantial amounts of DNA, and we therefore studied
ways to significantly reduce the quantity needed so that computation could be
carried out using manageable amounts of DNA. I must admit that as we worked on
this problem, I began to wonder if it would really be possible to surpass electronic
computers. These concerns were shared even by Adleman, whose idea was the trigger
for DNA computer research. Indeed, there were no case studies in which DNA molecular
reactions were used to solve complex mathematical problems that were beyond the
capabilities of electronic computers.
I was also working on Olympus's genome research, and I began to look for a way
to link these two areas together.
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