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National Science Foundation Award #0514875

Collaborative Research: Constrained and Error-Control Coding for DNA Computers

 
Investigator(s): Olgica Milenkovic (PI)
Sponsor: University of Colorado at Boulder, CO 80309 3034926221
Start Date/Expiration Date 2005-09-01 to 2006-08-31 (amended 2005-08-18)
Awarded Amount to Date: $87,737
Abstract: Project Abstract In the past decades, theoretical advances in the area of information processing and storage have lead to outstanding developments in the field of modern communication technology. The vast accumulated knowledge in mathematics and computer science pertaining to this subject matter is expected to play a major role in the future progress of other diverse scientific and engineering branches, including molecular biology and biomedical engineering. Biological systems are the most perfect known information processing and storage devices, but very little is known about the mathematical principles of their functions and operations. Without a deeper understanding of these characteristics, many emerging technologies aimed at replicating nature's communication pathways will not achieve their full potential. This issue is of special importance for DNA and RNA-based computers, proposed for applications involving solvers of computationally hard problems and for use in "smart drug" systems, capable of regulating and normalizing gene expressions levels in cancerous cells. The investigators address various aspects of error-control and constrained coding for DNA based computers and DNA storage devices, which can aid in improving the performance and reliability of the systems under consideration. The research involves analyzing mathematical properties of RNA and single-stranded DNA folding and hybridization patterns from the perspective of information theory and statistical physics, and developing novel error-correction methods for constructing DNA tile sets used in algorithmic DNA self-assembly. The study is based on classical and some novel ideas from algebraic channel coding, combinatorial optimization and design theory. Furthermore, the investigators study the problem of modeling gene regulatory networks in terms of graphical structures closely related to coding-theoretic iterative systems.
NSF Org: CCF - Division of Computer and Communication Foundations
Award Number: 0514875
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Sirin Tekinay
CCF Division of Computer and Communication Foundations
CSE Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering
NSF Program(s): COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH
Field Application(s): Computer Science
Program Reference Code(s): BASIC RESEARCH & HUMAN RESORCS, 9218
Program Element Code(s): 4096