John-Thones Amenyo, Ph.D.
ANS Communications, Inc.

Bio-Silicon System (Graphic by John Furno (c).)

An important part of research into Molecular Computing is creating computer architectures for DNA-based computing as well as embedding such architectures in complex computational networks, whose other subsystems could include electronic computers, opto-electronic and even possibly all-optical computers. Such a hybrid architecture could conceivably be useful in tackling "grand challenge" problems in science and engineering, including scientific data visualization and simulations.

This viewpoint is complementary to the very basic research directions of characterizing DNA molecular processes most useful for digital computing and identifying suitable algorithms and computational problems.

This talk will focus on the author's original design of *general-purpose* DNA computer architectures, based on the concepts of computing flow and flow manipulations.

Furthermore, the talk will also expand on the current attempts to design and build a "Virtual Laboratory" for DNA Computing. Some of the powerful ideas involved in this attempt include, modeling complex dynamic process networks as examples of DNA computing algorithms; computing flow interactions; and insights from the engineering focus into understanding co-operative inter-gene interactions (communications and signaling) in biological DNA.

One goal of the Virtual Laboratory concept is to make modern ideas of molecular (DNA-based) computing more readily accessible to a wider community of engineers and scientists, who are likely to be more knowledgeable about the extant dominant paradigm of semiconductor-based, electronic computing.

Thursday, January 16, 1997, at 4pm in Room 526 of the Johnson Pavilion, 36th Street and Hamilton Walk, at the center of the University of Pennsylvania campus. Register in the lobby as a guest of Dr. Harvey Rubin.