Analog Synthetic and Systems Biology

We are exploiting the astoundingly detailed similarity between the equations of chemistry and the equations of subthreshold analog electronics [2] to design and build synthetic analog circuits in E. coli and yeast for various biotechnology and medical applications that utilize cells. We are also using analog circuit principles to analyze complex feedback pathways in mammalian cells to understand the causes of diseases like cancer and diabetes and to design synthetic genetic treatments for them.

Selected Publications

1. BACTERIAL GENETIC CIRCUITS: R. Danial, S. S. Woo, L. Turicchia, and R. Sarpeshkar, "Analog Transistor Models of Bacterial Genetic Circuits," Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Biological Circuits and Systems (BioCAS) Conference, pp. 333-336, San Diego, CA, November 2011.

2. CYTOMORPHIC ELECTRONICS: Cell-inspired electronics for systems and synthetic biology. Chapter 24, pp. 753-786, in R. Sarpeshkar Ultra Low Power Bioelectronics: Fundamentals, Biomedical Applications, and Bio-inspired Systems, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, February 2010.

3. LOG DOMAIN CIRCUIT MODELS OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS: S. Mandal and R. Sarpeshkar, "Log-Domain Circuit Models of Chemical Reactions," Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), Taipei, Taiwan, May 2009, pp. 2697-2700.

4. CIRCUIT MODELS OF STOCHASTIC GENETIC NETWORKS: S. Mandal and R. Sarpeshkar, "Circuit Models of Stochastic Genetic Networks," 2009 IEEE Symposium on Biological Circuits and Systems (BioCAS), Beijing, China, pp. 109-112, November 2009.

5. HYBRID ANALOG-DIGITAL COMPUTATION IN THE BRAIN: R. Hahnloser, R. Sarpeshkar, M. Mahowald, R. Douglas, and S. Seung, " Digital Selection and Analogue Amplification Coexist in a cortex-inspired silicon circuit," NATURE, Cover article, Vol. 405, pp. 947-951, 22 June 2000.

6. ANALOG VERSUS DIGITAL: R. Sarpeshkar, "Analog Versus Digital: Extrapolating from Electronics to Neurobiology," Neural Computation, Vol. 10, pp. 1601-1638, 1998.

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