  DNA has been discussed as a potential medium for data storage. Potentially it
could be denser, could consume less energy, and could be more durable than
conventional storage media such as hard drives, solid-state storage, and
optical media. However, computing on data stored in DNA is a largely unexplored
challenge. This paper proposes an integrated circuit (IC) based on
microfluidics that can perform complex operations such as artificial neural
network (ANN) computation on data stored in DNA. It computes entirely in the
molecular domain without converting data to electrical form, making it a form
of in-memory computing on DNA. The computation is achieved by topologically
modifying DNA strands through the use of enzymes called nickases. A novel
scheme is proposed for representing data stochastically through the
concentration of the DNA molecules that are nicked at specific sites. The paper
provides details of the biochemical design, as well as the design, layout, and
operation of the microfluidics device. Benchmarks are reported on the
performance of neural network computation.
