Can you imagine a future where our bodies will be tuned to heal themselves just as easily as the software we put into our gadgets? Well the University of Washington envisions such a future — and it’s come up with a solution that could eventually turn this idea into a reality. A new programming language has been developed that can enable engineers could use to build artificial DNA molecules which could be embedded into our cells. As we expect the programming language is still in
its babyhood stage and not far enough along for use in the medical industry. The university hopes its creation will eventually be used to craft custom molecules that can be inserted into a patient’s body to deliver drugs or detect diseases and other abnormalities.
Imagine Java for DNA
For those who have taken a chemistry class, would be familiar with the chemistry equations used, well the language will essentially build on such chemical equations. The language lets them write equations for DNA in code that can be used to test new drugs and medical treatments. Theoratically,the language could program DNA molecules to control our cells just as you would do java code on your computer.
