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Algorithmic Bioprocesses pp 543–584Cite as

Programmability of Chemical Reaction Networks

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Part of the book series: Natural Computing Series ((NCS))

Abstract

Motivated by the intriguing complexity of biochemical circuitry within individual cells we study Stochastic Chemical Reaction Networks (SCRNs), a formal model that considers a set of chemical reactions acting on a finite number of molecules in a well-stirred solution according to standard chemical kinetics equations. SCRNs have been widely used for describing naturally occurring (bio)chemical systems, and with the advent of synthetic biology they become a promising language for the design of artificial biochemical circuits. Our interest here is the computational power of SCRNs and how they relate to more conventional models of computation. We survey known connections and give new connections between SCRNs and Boolean Logic Circuits, Vector Addition Systems, Petri nets, Gate Implementability, Primitive Recursive Functions, Register Machines, Fractran, and Turing Machines. A theme to these investigations is the thin line between decidable and undecidable questions about SCRN behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neuroinformatics, UZH, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Matthew Cook

Authors
  1. Matthew Cook
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  2. David Soloveichik
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  3. Erik Winfree
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  4. Jehoshua Bruck
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew Cook .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Computer Science, University of British Columbia, Main Mall 201-2366, Vancouver, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Anne Condon

  2. Dept. Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    David Harel

  3. Leiden Inst. Advanced Computer Science, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 1, Leiden, 2333 CA, Netherlands

    Joost N. Kok

  4. Turku Centre for Computer Science, Lemminkaisenkatu 14 A, Turku, 20520, Finland

    Arto Salomaa

  5. Computer Science, Computation,, California Inst. of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, U.S.A.

    Erik Winfree

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Cook, M., Soloveichik, D., Winfree, E., Bruck, J. (2009). Programmability of Chemical Reaction Networks. In: Condon, A., Harel, D., Kok, J., Salomaa, A., Winfree, E. (eds) Algorithmic Bioprocesses. Natural Computing Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88869-7_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88869-7_27

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