Is this the next technology revolution? (image source: Shelf Company X)
Researchers at Standford University have developed a method for increasing information flow between cells according to Andrew Myers from Stanford University’s School of Medicine. By modifying a virus, Monica Oritz, and Stanford bioengineering assistant professor, Drew Endy, have been able to increase the complexity and volume of information flowing between cells in what the researchers dub ‘Bi-Fi’. In what sounds like the perfect plot device for a Hollywood doomsday movie,
“M13 is a packager of genetic messages. It reproduces within its host, taking strands of DNA — strands that engineers can control — wrapping them up one by one and sending them out encapsulated within proteins produced by M13 that can infect other cells. Once inside the new hosts, they release the packaged DNA message.”
The advantage of DNA is that the message can contain any sort of genetic instruction, whereas other biological processes are more limited to basic notions of more, less and none, such as with sugars.
Cells infected with M13 have been able to communicate over a distance of over 7cm in a gelatinous medium with DNA strands containing 40,000 base pairs. This capability will allow bioengineers to create complex multicellular communities which can be applied to the development of biosynthetic factories that produce pharmaceuticals and other complex biological products such as fuels.
In the future, the researchers hope to use ‘Bi-Fi’ to allow complex 3D programming that can regenerate body tissue or organs.
Either this is going to be amazing, or utterly terrifying.
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