Recently, the journal Nature Reviews Bioengineering published online a review paper titled “DNA-based biocomputing circuits and their biomedical applications” by the team of Fei Wang and Chunhai Fan from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, the Zhangjiang Institute for Advanced Study, and the Frontier Science Center for Transformative Molecules at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.This work provides a forward-looking perspective on DNA molecular computation and its biomedical applications.

DNA-based biocomputing circuits are chemical reaction networks with information processing capabilities, achieved through the specific interactions between DNA molecules.Such liquid-phase biocomputing offers inherent high parallelism and biocompatibility, making it potentially widely applicable in the biomedical field.

In this review, the researchers focus on the design and implementation strategies of DNA-based biocomputing circuits.They introduce the construction principles and functional mechanisms of basic computational modules such as switches, logic gates, signal amplifiers, and neuron-like elements, demonstrating the potential of DNA molecules in information processing.Furthermore, they explore various strategies for assembling computational units into complete DNA circuits and analyze the mechanisms for regulating the temporal behavior of DNA circuits.The authors also discuss the application prospects of DNA circuits in areas such as cellular imaging, biosensing and diagnostics, conditional therapy, and endogenous gene network reconstruction.They go on to envision future applications of DNA circuits in these fields and propose key research directions, including system integration, large-scale manufacturing, and multifunctional co-design.

Original link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44222-025-00303-8