Computing Arithmetic Functions Using Immobilised Enzymatic Reaction Networks

Abstract

Living systems use enzymatic reaction networks to process biochemical information and make decisions in response to external or internal stimuli. Herein, we present a modular and reusable platform for molecular information processing using enzymes immobilised in hydrogel beads and compartmentalised in a continuous stirred tank reactor. We demonstrate how this setup allows us to perform simple arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction and multiplication, using various concentrations of substrates or inhibitors as inputs and the production of a fluorescent molecule as the readout.

Complex chemical reaction networks for future information processing

“…Apart from that, the aforementioned complexity of information processing in living entities may require massive parallel operation in interlinked compartments. As a potential alternative, chemical reaction networks that have a higher complexity than the BZ reaction have been recently proposed as a chemical computing platform (Ivanov et al, 2023 ). In principle, any real-world chemical system can be encoded in the form of a chemical reaction network, although the network width and depth (i.e., the number of compounds formed and the number of reactions or reaction sequences that connect these compounds) varies significantly.…”