R. Colin Johnson
EE Times
Giants trying to catch-up to Microbial Robotics
Intel, Microsoft and Autodesk are quietly investing in "programming" living organisms – potentially merging biology with electronics. However, all three are playing catch-up to Microbial Robotics LLC (Cincinnati, Ohio), which has already perfected its ViruBots and BactoBots.
The ViruBots and BactoBots are based on programming living organisms (viruses and bacteria) to perform humanitarian tasks for which they were not evolved to do – such as clean toxins from waste water, hunting down and killing (only) cancer cells, produce non-polluting fuels and developing new hybrid living/electronic materials. Microbial Robotics has already spun-off a eight companies to market these solutions to particular environmental and medical tasks, but Intel, Microsoft and Autodesk are joining the fray because of the ever slimming margins in electronics and end-of-the-road for semiconductors coming into sight circa 2028, according to Jason Barkeloo, Microbial Robotics’ CEO.
"Manipulating nucleic base pairs (A,T,C,G) on DNA strands is comparable to binary programming," Barkeloo, told us. "Bacteria and viruses are the hardware, DNA is the operating system and genes are the application software."
One unique addition that Microbial Robotics adds is a living form of digital rights management (DRM) called Gene Rights Management. GeRM works by adding a required consumable commodity – a trade secret "key" molecule – to BactoBots and ViruBots feed. If the key is absent, the Bots cease growing and reproducing, and eventually die.
Using the principles of synthetic biology – which were only discovered in the 20th century – Microbial Robotics enables, engineers to mimic natural selection, programming living organisms in a matter of months that takes eons to do in nature. Eventually, it will enable engineers to create living organisms from scratch – simple organic chemicals – but for now Microbial Robotics uses existing bacteria and viruses, then inserts their own DNA so that they perform new tasks including clean water, reduce disease, produce non-polluting fuels, create therapeutics and develop new materials.
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| Microbial Robotics also programs living viruses to seek-and-destroy tumors or to perform many other therapeutic or diagnostic tasks. (Source: Microbial Robotics). |
Not only that, for a price they will sell any company the technology and training they need to create their own ViruBots and BactoBots, with several customers already under their belt worldwide. As long as these customers adhere to the GeRM system, their BactoBots and ViruBots are protected from theft (cloning), but unfortunately it is also possible for companies purchasing Microbial Robotics' intellectual property (IP) to leave out the GeRM system. It is also possible to use the system to make organisms from scratch and to produce genetic modified organism (GMO) crops.
"Right now, we aren't doing GMO for plants; just bacteria (BactoBots) and viruses (ViruBots)," Barkeloo told us. "And so far today, building an organism from 'scratch' is only claimed by Craig Venter. Besides, right now it's just academic – it will be a long time before its industrially important to start from scratch. Its much easier to modify organisms that natural selection has taken millions of years to complete. We are just tweaking them to perform humanitarian functions using what I call 'evolutionary engineering'."
Microbial Robotics has opened Pandora's Box and the leaders of the electronics world are taking notice – they want to combine electronics with genetics. Autodesk is planning to go into direct competition with Microbial Robotics with its Project Cyborg which is just entering beta testing. Their recognition was that Microbial Robotics had demonstrated that the same sorts of tools Autodesk provides for electronic engineers are very similar to those that they can supply genetic engineers.
Intel is taking it one step further, by creating a system that will turn their existing electronic engineers into genetic engineers. Intel's first project is its Smart Wet Lab Assistant being developed at the Intel Science and Technology Center for Pervasive Computing in cooperation with professor Eric Klavins' synthetic biology laboratory at the University of Washington (Seattle). The Smart Wet Lab Assistant and its predecessor, Klavins' Aquarium project, uses Intel technology to record every aspect of a successful experiments so that Intel can accurately teach its electronic engineers to become genetic engineers too – and in a matter of weeks. These tools will also allow Intel to accurately reproduce their results in programing living organisms for use in electronic devices at any of its worldwide locations in the future, according to Klavins.
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| Smart Wet Lab Assistant created at Intel's Science and Technology Center for Pervasive Computing at the University of Washington. (Source: University of Washington). |
Microsoft Research, on the other hand, is creating its own toolset for the Genetic Engineering of Cells. Microsoft is keeping its cards close to its vest, leaking only that it plans to create detailed simulators that uses modular biological parts – genes and proteins mostly – to create new organisms for industrial biotech and agricultural companies where high margins could eventually overshadow its successes in electronic software with new hybrid electro/living organisms.
