Biological computation (keynote)

Abstract

Unlike engineered systems, living cells self-generate, self-organise and self-repair, they undertake massively parallel operations with slow and noisy components in a noisy environment, they sense and actuate at molecular scales, and most intriguingly, they blur the line between software and hardware. Understanding this biological computation presents a huge challenge to the scientific community. Yet the ultimate destination and prize at the culmination of this scientific journey is the promise of revolutionary and transformative technology: the rational design and implementation of biological function, or more succinctly, the ability to program life.