Bioprocessing Device Composed of Protein/DNA/Inorganic Material Hybrid.

Major challenges in molecular electronics include miniaturization, and the realization of a simple function to alter silicon-based electronics. It has been hard to develop a single molecular-based computing system, since such systems need complex functionality to be developed at the single-molecular level. To develop a molecular-based biocomputing system, a bioprocessing device is demonstrated that consists of recombinant azurin/DNA/inorganic material hybrid to perform the various functions in a device. A metalloprotein which exhibits redox behavior is used as a biomemory source. The redox property could be controlled with command materials (conducting nanoparticles, heavy metal ions, and semiconducting nanoparticles) to perform 'information reinforcement,' 'information regulation,' and 'information amplification' functions, respectively. This bioprocessing device could be a foundation to develop single-biomolecular-based computing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]