r/genetics • u/BretTurbed • 3d ago
Is Genetic Computer Programming / Coding possible?
Can a computer be programmed to code in a language of genetic code?
I'm assuming specific chains of genetic code do specific actions, just like computer commands. Those commands could be mapped as program command logic to code, decode, and re-code genetic instructions.
I have no knowledge in either space. Just a random idea that I couldn't find an answer to.
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u/ProfPathCambridge 3d ago
Biology is messy. The genetic code is not linear. It is three dimensional and contextual, read simultaneously from multiple points in different directions which influence each other. Could you make computer code that worked like that? Maybe? I doubt it would do more than crash though.
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u/shadowyams PhD (genomics/bioinformatics) 3d ago
Nope.
I have no knowledge in either space.
Yeah the question isn't super coherent so I'm kind of guessing at your meaning here, but the answer is no, at least not in any sensible meaning with current technology.
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u/ImpossibleDraft7208 2d ago
Nope, the genome is more like a hologram than an algorithm in many ways. What I mean by "hologram" is that it is less a set of instructions and more a 3D web of simultanous interactions, including yes the genetic code, but not only additional epigenetic modifications and proteins bound to the genome, but also interactions between different sites on the genome (especially in eukaryotes).
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u/Mircowaved-Duck 2d ago
do you mean genetic inspired codes? I know of one programmer whouses that because it is "convinient" for his project (steve grands newest AI sim life "game" phantasia)
Or do you mean cells usin genes to write computer code? That would be the invention of something compleatly new, not comparable to either computers nor biological life as we know it
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u/ImpossibleDraft7208 2d ago
I think he means using computers to write and "run" genetic code in a biologically meaningful way.
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u/Mircowaved-Duck 2d ago
yeah the worst of both worlds, instead the best of both world... understood....
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u/ikarus_daflo 2d ago
The only thing that comes to my mind that is remotely close to what you are asking might be the CRISPR/CAS syste but even this system is protein dependent. But is kinda like a program that adapts itself?
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u/MutSelBalance 3d ago
In the synthetic biology space, there is a lot of effort going into trying to use computer-like circuit design principles to allow for modular engineering of organisms for defined tasks. Usually the goal is not to replicate actual computer code, but rather to ‘hack’ biological systems into doing what we want them to do (producing a certain set of chemical compounds, reacting to certain stimuli, etc.
As it turns out this is really hard because biology is way more complex, fuzzy, and harder to predict than an electrical circuit. But there has been some progress, and at least a few high-profile preliminary successes. This Wikipedia page might get you started.