記得昨天我說過Solaris 11從我頭頂飄過嗎？好，今天我們要討論的，是操作系統和生物交匯的領域。諾丁漢大學的科學家們正試圖開發
活體生物細胞水平的操作系統。項目名稱為AUdACiOuS。
確切地說，這是什麼意思呢？「我們正試圖創造一種生物細胞。它同計算機操作系統有一定的等價性，比如可以對一組給定的細胞可以進行無縫再編程，於是可在不需要改動硬體的情況下執行任何功能，」該項目領導人Natalio Krasnogor教授說，「我們討論的是一個雄心勃勃的目標，它將導致一個根本性的突破，最終將允許我們急速創造原型，實現並部署全新的、不存在於自然界的生物實體，使它們適應於全新的應用領域。」
該技術存在對世界產生極大影響的可能。它可能導致新的食物源的開發，專為治療裁剪的特殊藥品，以及為移植病人生產新器官等。而且，它可能被用於解決環境問題。
「當前，每次我們需要一個能執行一定新功能的細胞，我們都不得不從零開始創建它；這是個漫長與艱苦的過程。大多數人認為要想改變細胞行為，我們所要做的只是修改細胞的DNA。但其實不止這麼簡單——我們常常發現結果 行為是錯誤的，那時又不得不回到起點，」Krasnogor 進一步解釋，「如果AUdACiOuS 項目成功，那麼一年之內，我們將能通過計算機對細菌細胞進行編輯，編譯，並將程序存儲在這些新的細胞中，使之執行。就像是對一台計算機一樣，我們正試圖創造一個生物細胞的基本操作系統。」
名為「脂質體邏輯的計算性研究——自底向上實現細胞計算」的調查文件，在線可用主——雖然我不確定它是免費的（通過大學帳號可訪問）。
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《脂質體邏輯的計算性研究——自底向上實現細胞計算
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轉載請註明：Linux人社區>英文資訊翻譯專版.編譯
英文原文： [img=15,15]http://www.osnews.com/images/gstaroff.gif[/img] AUdACiOuS: A Biological Cell Operating System
posted by Thom Holwerda on Fri 11th Nov 2011 18:39 UTC, submitted by fran
[img=32,32]http://www.osnews.com/images/icons/1.gif[/img]Remember yesterday when I said Solaris 11 goes way over my head? Well, today we're talking about where operating systems and biology intersect. Scientists at the University of Nottingham are trying to develop the in vivo biological cell-equivalent of a computer operating system. The project's name is AUdACiOuS.
What does this mean, exactly? "We are looking at creating a cell's equivalent to a computer operating system in such a way that a given group of cells could be seamlessly re-programmed to perform any function without needing to modifying its hardware," explains Professor Natalio Krasnogor, who leads the effort, "We are talking about a highly ambitious goal leading to a fundamental breakthrough that will, ultimately, allow us to rapidly prototype, implement and deploy living entities that are completely new and do not appear in nature, adapting them so they perform new useful functions."
This technology could potentially have a huge impact on the world. It could lead to to the development of new food sources, special drugs tailored to patients, growing new organs for transplant patients. Furthermore, it could be used to solve environmental problems.
"Currently, each time we need a cell that will perform a certain new function we have to recreate it from scratch which is a long and laborious process. Most people think all we have to do to modify behaviour is to modify a cell's DNA but it's not as simple as that - we usually find we get the wrong behaviour and then we are back to square one," Krasnogor further explains, "If we succeed with this AUdACiOuS project, in five years time, we will be programming bacterial cells in the computer and compiling and storing its program into these new cells so they can readily execute them. Like for a computer, we are trying to create a basic operating system for a biological cell."
The research paper, titled "A computational study of liposome logic: towards cellular computing from the bottom up", is available online - although I'm not sure if it's free (my university account took care of it).
