The Emergence of biological coding theory as a mathematical framework for modeling, monitoring, and modulating biomolecular systems

Abstract

In this work we will discuss the implications of understanding hybridization using the mathematical framework of error control coding theory and how this requires not only the use of information theoretic analysis tools, but compels us to view and model biomolecular systems as information transmission and processing systems. Using the genetic communication theory paradigm, we investigate coding theory algorithms for in silico categorization of single nucleotide polymorphisms based on the calculation of syndromes [1]. We explore the use of coding theory frameworks in the design of in vitro computational biosensors [2] and design of error correcting biosensors [3] for monitoring biomolecular systems. We conclude by briefly investigating the necessity of biological coding theory in the emerging field of synthetic biology [4] where incorporation of error control codes into synthetic DNA, an established area of research in the field of DNA computing [5], is becoming an area of growing interest in order to increase the robustness of engineered biomolecular systems.