Dynamical Task Switching in Cellular Computers

Life (Basel). 2019 Jan 26;9(1):14. doi: 10.3390/life9010014.

Abstract

We present a scheme for implementing a version of task switching in engineered bacteria, based on the manipulation of plasmid copy numbers. Our method allows for the embedding of multiple computations in a cellular population, whilst minimising resource usage inefficiency. We describe the results of computational simulations of our model, and discuss the potential for future work in this area.

Keywords: cellular computing; plasmids; synthetic biology.