Compartmentalized DNA Computers for In-Vitro Diagnostic Applications

2026-07-22

Changes in human microRNA (miRNA) levels are associated with several important human diseases. Monitoring changes in miRNA levels would enable clinicians to perform diagnosis and evaluate therapeutic efficacy of drugs. In principle, changes in a miRNA signature could be detected by existing methods such as quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR). However, the experimental complexity and computational analysis of the data prevents the measurements of miRNA signatures in a clinical setting. DNA-based molecular computers combine multiplex detection of DNA and RNA strands with molecular computation and are thus able to process and classify miRNA signatures into easy interpretable answers. In my ERC starting grant BioCircuit, we have made a technological breakthrough by compartmentalizing DNA-based molecular computers inside semipermeable micrometer-sized compartments made from a Bovine serum albumin (BSA) polymer conjugate. We have shown that compartmentalization of DNA circuits improves their speed by an order of magnitude and decreases their overall leakiness. Importantly, our work has revealed that this platform is capable of distributed sensing and processing of DNA and RNA strands. In 'DNACom' we will 1) establish the technical proof of concept of compartmentalized DNA computers for in-vitro molecular diagnostics (IVDs) and 2) validate the commercial application of compartmentalized DNA circuits as low-cost, portable point-of-care devices for detection and classification of microRNA signatures.

Netherlands

2026-02-01