4 ms·
mRNA seems almost like a biological programming language; if you can determine how to build a protein that triggers the body's immune system to attack something
by coldcode 5y ago
mRNA seems almost like a biological programming language; if you can determine how to build a protein that triggers the body's immune system to attack something you want to destroy it's just a matter of design and testing. I wonder if you could build a real language that you could use to design a sequence and automate the testing.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- arrosenberg 5y agoYou could, but keep in mind mRNA occurs in 3D and thermodynamic and kinetic forces play a huge role in biochemistry, so it’s quite a bit more complicated than your average program.
- inglor_cz 5y agoWell, that is why it comes 50 years later than, say, Kernighan and Ritchie standard of C. The know-how and hardware of today are just enough for the 1.0 of mRNA vaccines, so to say. How will the fourth or fifth generation look like, is probably beyond our imagination right now.
- bqmjjx0kac 5y agoNot quite what you're asking for, but check out CRN++ [0], a programming language built on chemical reaction networks (CRN). [0]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.07430 https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.07430
- dehrmann 5y agoI still find describing anything in biology as a "programming language" to be a bit generous. It still feels more like fiddling with inputs to an ML model.