DNA molecular computer is recognized as the next generation computer, and an important foundation of DNA computing is the logic gate based on DNA molecules, which is a hot and difficult point in the field of computer science. Not long ago, Chinese scientists made important progress in this field, and the stability of the new "DNA logic gate" system was greatly enhanced. Related research results have been published in the famous chemical magazine "German Applied Chemistry" published in March.

In the computer field, silicon is the king of materials for making chips. However, the traditional electronic computer based on silicon will reach the physical limit in the next twenty years, so it is necessary to find a better substitute. Experts generally believe that DNA molecular computer may solve the bottleneck problem of electronic computer development and is one of the directions of computer development in the future.

DNA molecular computer is a kind of biological computer, which is a new research field developed by combining computer science with molecular biology.

It was born in 1994 and was invented by Leonardo Aderman. He used a "test tube" DNA computer to do experiments to test the feasibility of the DNA computer. DNA computer takes nucleotides as memory and has a very large-scale parallel structure. Its biggest advantage lies in its amazing storage capacity and operation speed. 1 m3 DNA solution can store 1 trillion binary data. More than ten hours of DNA calculation is equivalent to the total amount of calculation since the advent of all computers. Therefore, in the future, the chips and disks of computers can be replaced by DNA solutions, and its powerful functions will be surprising. And DNA computing consumes very little energy, only one billionth of that of computers. It is precisely because of the powerful parallel operation and super-high storage capacity of DNA computer that DNA computer may solve some complex problems that are difficult to be completed by electronic computer, and may also play an important role in the fields of drug delivery or gene analysis in vivo.

Although the potential of DNA computer is infinite, there are still many bottleneck technologies and basic problems to be solved, among which the logic gate based on DNA molecule is an important foundation to realize DNA computing. Fan Chunhai, a researcher at sinap, has successfully developed a new type of "DNA logic gate" by applying DNA ribozyme through in-depth interdisciplinary cooperation with Academician Lin He and Professor Zhizhou Zhang of Shanghai Jiaotong University. The new feature of the system is that it excludes the participation of RNA nucleosides in the previous design of DNA logic gates, and only uses DNA molecules, which greatly enhances the stability of the system.