BioScript: programming safe chemistry on laboratories-on-a-chip

This paper introduces BioScript , a domain-specific language (DSL) for programmable biochemistry that executes on emerging microfluidic platforms. The goal of this research is to provide a simple, intuitive, and type-safe DSL that is accessible to life science practitioners. The novel feature of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications of the ACM 2021-02, Vol.64 (2), p.97-104
Main Authors: Ott, Jason, Loveless, Tyson, Curtis, Chris, Lesani, Mohsen, Brisk, Philip
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Biochemistry
Compilers
Compiling (Electronic computers)
Computer programming
Coroutines
Domain specific languages
Embedded systems
Information management
Innovations
Microfluidics
Programming languages
Safety and security measures
Studies
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Summary:This paper introduces BioScript , a domain-specific language (DSL) for programmable biochemistry that executes on emerging microfluidic platforms. The goal of this research is to provide a simple, intuitive, and type-safe DSL that is accessible to life science practitioners. The novel feature of the language is its syntax, which aims to optimize human readability; the technical contribution of the paper is the BioScript type system. The type system ensures that certain types of errors, specific to biochemistry, do not occur, such as the interaction of chemicals that may be unsafe. Results are obtained using a custom-built compiler that implements the BioScript language and type system.
ISSN:0001-0782
1557-7317
DOI:10.1145/3441686