76 Brian Bloom And

Biological vesicles are composed of a phospholipid membrane bi-layer, which has folded on itself to form a spherical structure with an aqueous cavity. We propose that synthetic vesicles, termed liposomes, composed of speciic species of phospholipids might provide a useful architecture for the execution of some existing algorithms for DNA based computation. In this model, the liposomes would serve simultaneously as water-lled chambers containing speciic DNA reactants; and as valves to permit, via controlled fusion, interaction of only the DNA molecules and possibly enzymes appropriate for a particular stage of computation.