Speakers
Description
Biomolecules can be repurposed to build programmable chemical computers, either in vitro or in living cells. A particularly promising technology is DNA strand displacement, which has been shown capable of implementing arbitrary systems of chemical reactions. Since chemical reactions can perform computation, this raises fundamental mathematical questions: What types of computation can chemistry-based dynamical systems perform, and with what efficiency, reliability, and robustness?
This minisymposium showcases recent research breakthroughs contributing to the theoretical foundations of this emerging field. Speakers will discuss novel chemical modules designed for diverse computational tasks, including fundamental arithmetic operations, transcendental functions, parameter search, and machine learning algorithms. The talks will address key theoretical questions such as computability, computational speed, and programmability within the constraints of emerging technologies and available resources. Through the minisymposium and related discussions, we aim to foster collaboration within a community of mathematicians and experimentalists working at the interface of chemistry and computation.
