Biocomputers: Problems They Solve, State of the Art, and Prospects

The review considers the approaches used to construct biocomputers, which are computational systems based on biological components. We focus on the approaches that utilize DNA molecules and those that utilize living cells. Each approach is analyzed, and its advantages and drawbacks are considered. Several factors substantially limit the progress in the field. First, there is still no distinct set of particular computational problems that demonstrate a substantial superiority of a biocomputer over modern conventional computational systems. The second basic problem is that computations are slow, being limited by the rates of biochemical reactions. Several interesting features are known for DNA computers, warranting their further research and development.