Science Advances: Accelerating DNA calculations with droplets

□ recent research has shown that liquid-liquid phase separation — similar to the formation of oil droplets in water — can form various types of membrane-free organelles, such as stress granules and nucleoli,
in living cells.
These organelles, also known as biomolecular agglomerates, are droplets that perform specific cellular functions, including gene regulation and stress response
.

Now, □Now, a joint research team led by Seoul National University professors Yongdae Shin and Do-Nyun Kim has announced that they have used the unique properties of self-assembling DNA molecules to construct synthetic condensates
with programmable components and functions.

□ researchers designed DNA scaffolds with motifs for self-association and specific recruitment
of DNA targets.
Within the appropriate salt concentration and temperature range, the engineered DNA scaffold undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation to form dense agglomerates that are organized in a way highly similar
to those found in living cells.
Synthetic DNA agglomerates can recruit specific target DNA molecules, and the researchers demonstrated that the degree of
recruitment can be precisely defined at the DNA sequence level.

□ is targeted with DNA computational components to impart functionality
to the synthesized agglomerates.
DNA computing has been widely used in various bioengineering and medical fields
due to its inherent parallel computing capabilities.
However, the slow individual computing process has been a major drawback
.
With the synthesized DNA condensate, Shin and his team demonstrated that DNA computation, including logic gate operations, is greatly faster than
10 times when coupled to condensate.

The structure of □ DNA scaffold also allows specific computational operations to be selectively recruited among many other computational operations that run in parallel, enabling a new dynamic-based gating mechanism
.
The researchers hope their system can be widely used in a variety of DNA circuits for
disease diagnosis, biosensing, and other advanced molecular computations.