INTERACTIVE DNA SEQUENCE PROCESSING FOR A MICROCOMPUTER

DNA AND BIOSEQUENCES ARE BEING DETERMINED FASTER THAN THEY CAN BE COMPARED AND ANALYZED. PRESENT TECHNIQUES FOR RIGOROUSLY SEARCHING A LARGE DATABASE ARE COSTLY AND TIME CONSUMING. UNDER ALL PLAUSIBLE GROWTH PROJECTIONS, THE PROBLEM WILL SOON BECOME OVERWHELMING. A CUSTOM, VERY LARGE SCALE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT THAT COULD BE USED FOR HIGH SPEED COMPARISON, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION OF DNA AND PROTEIN SEQUENCES HAS BEEN DESIGNED. THE SYSTOLIC ARRAY CAN, IN A SINGLE PASS, SCRUTINIZE EACH SEGMENT OF EVERY BIOSEQUENCE IN A DATABASE TO DETERMINE ITS HOMOLOGY TO ANY SEGMENT OF AN INPUT PATTERN ACCORDING TO A STATISTICALLY RIGOROUS CRITERION. PHASE I RESEARCH INCLUDES DESIGNING AND PROTOTYPING A LOW COST BIOLOGICAL SEQUENCE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS NODE (BIOSCAN) PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD FOR AN IBM-COMPATIBLE AT PERSONAL COMPUTER. IN ADDITION, SOFTWARE ENABLING THE BOARD TO INTERFACE WITH COMMONLY USED, PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE PACKAGES (AS, E.G., FASTA OR BLAST3) IS BEING DEVELOPED. FINALLY, THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SYSTEM IN ACTUAL LABORATORY SETTINGS IS BEING EVALUATED AGAINST CURRENT TECHNIQUES. IN PHASE II, AN INTERACTIVE ANALYSIS PLATFORM WILL BE DEVELOPED ON THE BASIS OF THE EVALUATION RESULTS OBTAINED IN PHASE I.