Robots Go Viral with DNA

PORTLAND, Ore.--The micro-robots of the future will be cybernetic organisms programmed with DNA instead of binary code, according to researchers at the SynBio Summit 2015 | Mid-America .

At the Cincinnati event hosted by Microbial Robotics, scientists demonstrated bioengineered viruses called Virobots and a bacteria it calls Bactobots, both of which aim to aid the world's most humanitarian endeavors -- such as Virobots that implement "The Cure, or living Bactobots that hunt down toxics to clean wastewater without chemicals, and eliminate the need for drugs of any kind.

"We are building an open source community on the model of Linux, so that the big problems of today that are unfairly enriching the big pharmaceutical companies--where treating a disease's symptoms is more profitable than eradicating them--can be replaced by communal humanitarian efforts to eradicate disease for the greater good," Jason E. Barkeloo, founder and CEO of Microbial Robotics, told EE Times.

Microbial Robotics CEO Jason E. Barkeloo explains how open-source tools will accelerate the development of living robots and cut costs.

Microbial Robotics hope that crowd-sourcing the open-source code allowing new ventures to quickly develop viruses and bacteria that cure the incurable today, while adding Microbial Robots and its collaborators will have to create its own open-source 3-D CAD tool to supplement the DNA programming tools that are already available as free downloads.

"I certainly hope we don't have to go into competition with the likes of AutoDesk and Microsoft," said Barkeloo. "I'm hoping they will see the business advantages of open-source systems the way IBM embraced Linux."

Microsoft and AudoDesk each have proprietary synthetic biology mega-programs, though none of the companies attended the Summit. Autodesk's Project Cyborg is creating a computer-aided-design (CAD) studio that can be used to produce the DNA strands that can cure the malady of your choice. Microsoft has designer virus and bacteria projects underway, but may favor keeping their systems proprietary (and expensive--after all, how much would you pay them to cure yourself of a malady when your doctor gives you just days or months to live otherwise?).

One key that could attract the likes of AutoDesk and Microsoft to open-source solutions is Microbial Robotics publicly available solution to prevent genetically engineered organisms from spreading uncontrollably. Modeled on Apple's digital-rights-management (DRM) code, a genetic rights management (GeRM) system works essentially the same way--you need to supply a code for it to keep working, but in this case programmed with DNA.

Synthetic biology programs biological systems (here a bacteria) to carry out well-defined functions. Microsoft's ultimate dream is to design these systems using engineering-based tools and programming languages, to translate it into DNA sequences that can be put to work in living cells. Source: Microsoft

Instead of the 1s and 0s used to code traditional computers, DNA programs are coded in four base pairs (A,T,C,G). The virus or bacterium being programmed is the hardware, the gene is the application and the GeRM is the DRM.

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Robots Go Viral with DNA