Microbe Processors

gpmap writes "Smart microbes are closer to reality than you might think, as described in an interesting article on Boston Globe Online. Ron Weiss, a Princeton biochemist, has already programmed E. Coli bacteria cells that release a fluorescent protein when they're exposed to certain chemicals. Now that a team at Stanford University has found a computer-based way to make cells react to any known chemical, the idea of weapons-detecting microbes looks even more promising. That is just one of the more modest applications of a remarkable new engineering discipline -- the science of programming cells. Imagine thousands of preprogrammed cells coursing through your bloodstream, checking cholesterol levels and patrolling for cancer. Or an army of bacteria powerful enough to suck the unwanted contaminant out of a whole lake, but smart enough to turn themselves off when no longer needed."

Comments

More practical applications

[pragma_x]

IMO, smart bacteria through genetic manipulation may be the quickest path toward all the goals that nantoech is attempting to achieve. After all, the cell is just such a 'nanomachine' with several billion years of refinement behind it.

So I wonder how much longer we'll have to wait until we have bacteria growing huge quantities of CNT's, or other small scale nanostructures.

Be wary of organic 'machines'

[mike_lynn]

In response to the second comment by the poster about microbes that suck contaminants out of a lake and then shut themselves off, I would beg everyone to read 'Zodiac' by Neal Stephenson. He actually covers this exact scenario.
You have to remember two general differences between machines and organics: organics like to reproduce and organics benefit from an imperfect replication system. When you have a lifeform that can create millions of copies of itself within hours, even a 0.001% error rate makes for dozens of imperfect but potentially viable copies.
I have no problem with using organic-scale devices as solutions to problems, but personally I'd feel better if it was built from scratch with careful study put into the potential mutations. It's not a question of whether we can, it's a question of whether we should.

Preprogrammed cells

[Z0mb1eman]

Very interesting concept, and amazing possibilities. Of course... this gives a whole new meaning to "debugging your code", or to finding a showstopper. I realize that this is a lot closer to biochemistry than it is to computer science, but nonetheless, using the programming metaphor suggests some worrying possibilities. Mainly, there is no chance for patches and bug fixes; it has to be right - 100% right - the first time. As another poster suggested, on a large scale even 99.9999% right isn't good enough.

I already have mine, thank you

[barakn]

Imagine thousands of preprogrammed cells coursing through your bloodstream, checking cholesterol levels and patrolling for cancer. I already have thousands of preprogrammed cells coursing through my bloodstream patrolling for cancer. They are known as T cells. My liver handles the cholesterol.