Computing with the Actin-Myosin molecular motor system

Dan Valeriu Nicolau Jr.

doi:10.1117/12.471944

14 November 2002 Computing with the Actin-Myosin Molecular Motor System

Dan Valeriu Nicolau Jr.

Proceedings Volume 4937, Biomedical Applications of Micro- and Nanoengineering; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.471944
Event: SPIE's International Symposium on Smart Materials, Nano-, and Micro- Smart Systems, 2002, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

We propose a new, biologically-inspired model of computation, based on the motion of actin filaments on a myosin substrate, as used in motility assays, noting that this represents a marriage of the fields of natural computing and computing with agents. A highly simplified model of actin motility is presented and used to simulate the simultaneous motion of identical filaments. We show that using some simple formal definitions, we can regard this motion as a continuous computation. We demonstrate using a computer simulation, how actin filaments can be used to solve a traditional maze in a highly parallel fashion, with obvious implications for attacking computationally difficult graph problems. Briefly, we mention the limitations of our model and possibilities for the physical implementation of such a system.

Citation Download Citation

Dan Valeriu Nicolau Jr. "Computing with the Actin-Myosin Molecular Motor System", Proc. SPIE 4937, Biomedical Applications of Micro- and Nanoengineering, (14 November 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.471944

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