Internal Readout System for Molecular Recorders

This paper quantifies a molecular measurement system as it may be applied to real-time brain activity mapping. The network´s signal source consists of biologically synthesized molecular recorders embedded in each neuron. This means of measurement promises the ability to obtain unprecedented levels of operational brain detail, but poses a formidable challenge in communicating its recordings outside the body. To simplify the problem this work discusses a centralized means of achieving readout that leverages an organism´s circulatory system and sensors for DNA sequencing. It studies a scenario where molecular recordings from the brain are allowed to circulate in the bloodstream while nanopores arrayed in vessels near the heart pick-up and process the messages. The circulatory system serves as a means of transport and signal redundancy while the sequencing technique offers the possibility of a monolithic high-throughput single-molecule detector.