DNA as a programming code

Just a short note not to forget: for quite a long time, one idea is wandering in my head. I can probably entitle it something like DNA as a compiled code: An engineering look on the biological problem.

In essence, the idea is the following. We used to make the devices that are either monolythic or disassembleable. That's fine, but such devices must be made at once and they are not capable of self-maintanece or self-development. What if we can write a computer-alike code that can be compilled to DNA? DNA can be a kind of compiled code, but it is possible to develop a programming language that allows to describe the properties of living organisms and compile it into DNA. It is possible to go from blindly copying and editing of DNA to a meaningful design of biological devices.

Some of ideas like that are being explored. Recently there were an article ''Programmable Bacteria''.

In research that further bridges the biological and digital world, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco have created bacteria that can be programmed like a computer. Researchers built 'logic gates' ? the building blocks of a circuit ? out of genes and put them into E. coli bacteria strains. The logic gates mimic digital processing and form the basis of computational communication between cells, according to synthetic biologist Christopher A. Voigt.