Risco endeavored to inject molecular biology into computer sciences, having been inspired by a magazine article about a data encryption technique called steganography, the science of communicating in a manner that hides the existence of the communication.

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Several companies are already seeking to take advantage of the new field, called synthetic biology, which combines chemistry, computer science, molecular biology, genetics and cell biology to breed industrial life forms that can secrete fuels, vaccines or other commercial products.

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Although Yurke's tweezers are just a proof-of-principle, similar molecular motors might be used to assemble very tiny computer chips.

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In what appears to be an early proof-of-concept for DNA computing, scientists at Columbia University and the University of New Mexico have created a basic computer, called the MAYA-II, which has a molecular array of YES and AND logic gates made up of 100 DNA circuits.

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Such molecular motors, Yurke says, could be used as a way of manufacturing faster computer chips.

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Instead of just looking at one gene at a time, it uses an emerging method called systems biology that marries differential equations, computer simulations, and wet-lab biology to try to understand how molecular circuits go awry in cancer.

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