
Cells programmed like computers to fight disease - seventyhorses
https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/cells_programmed_like/
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otakucode
Reaction to headline: Now program them like computers to compute like
computers. I want an exponentially growing CPU!

Reaction to article: WTF is this garbage? We've been able to build RNA
sequences forever. Anyone who has read ANYTHING about bioinformatics knows RNA
works like 'computer code' to tell a cell how to make a protein. This is high
school level biology.

'The researchers made their invention by first modelling all possible RNA
sequence interactions on a computer.' No, they didn't. Jesus Christ no they
didn't. I don't know what they actually DID, or what they even CLAIM to have
done, but they did not do this. First off, there is no limit to the number of
possible RNA sequences. Secondly, there is no limit to the variety of possible
interactions. You know Folding@Home? It simulates protein folding? That's what
happens after you feed some RNA into a cells protein factory. So even if you
figured out the infinite variety of proteins possibly created by the infinite
variety of RNA sequences interacting with themselves and all the rest of the
cellular contents (including potential viruses or bacteria that snuck in),
then you'd have to solve every single folding problem on all of them.

Once you get to the actual words of the actual people doing the science, hey
magic, it actually makes sense and sounds cool! But WOW, whoever wrote that
press release up to the point where the closing quotation starts? That person
needs to never write a press release for a scientific finding ever again.
Humanity will be better off!

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xg15
Obligatory link:
[http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174](http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174)

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hutzlibu
That sounds awesome, but I don't understand much of DNA, so I can't tell, if
this is really a breakthrough, or rather a good step forward ... (I suspect
the latter)

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ethanwillis
It's not really a huge breakthrough. Lots of work has been done in this area
for a long time now.

Look into synthetic biology and biological parts:
[http://parts.igem.org/Main_Page](http://parts.igem.org/Main_Page)

This is just one way of getting to "programmable cells." Basically what
they're doing is creating a database of DNA sequences that can be stringed
together to create programs in cells. There's even GUI editors for this stuff,
tons of standards around the syntax, etc.

But Biology is messy. This stuff isn't going to be running deterministically,
it requires a deep understanding of the organism, it requires a deep
understanding of the overall environment an organism operates in, etc.

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ny8
As a software dev, who watches an unnecessary number of these cell
internals/molecular dynamics/spontaneous self assembly vids on youtube for
kicks, I am always amazed by the utter chaos that produces all these
mechanisms and processes.

We see nothing like this level of randomness in the already chaotic world of
software development. When one works on complex projects with more than a few
hundred people one constantly sees random things bumping into each other
producing stuff nobody imagined. But this stuff happening inside a cell is
just insane too me. Makes me feel like a cave man playing with my current set
of stone age tools.

~~~
drvdevd
Glad I'm not the only one... on all points -- love watching this stuff on
Youtube also!

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juliansamarjiev
It's called the immune system, no need to invent it, it's been here all
along... Just treat it with respect and it gives back.

