Twenty years of DNA computing: From complex combinatorial problems to the Boolean circuits

Abstract

This paper describes the development of molecular computing in an historical setting. Based on the idea that basic biochemical property of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule can be employed to solve Nondeterministic Polynomial Time (NP) problem, several remarkable models and algorithms are proposed for solving complex combinatorial problems. The development is not limited to that; it extends up to the implementation of molecular Boolean Circuits for realization of biological computer. It is concluded that in the past 20 years the DNA research and development made progress on regular base, but the practical line is still lacking behind. The research work in this field is expected to be good in next few decades.