Enzyme transistor circuits

The authors explore the possibility of constructing extremely high-density computing architectures using molecular electronics technology. By employing the specificity of biological molecules, such as enzymes, new integrated circuit architectures which are essentially free from interconnection problems could be constructed. To clarify the proposed concept, the authors present a functional model of a basic biomolecular switching device called an ‘enzyme transistor’. The enzyme transistor is, in a sense, an artificial catalyst which selects a specific substrate molecule and transforms it into a specific product. Using this primitive function, various wire-free computing circuits can be realised: examples include biochemical amplifiers for analogue signal processing and basic digital circuits. Addressing the implementation issue, the authors also propose bioelectronic implementation of enzyme transistors.