Modulated Signals in Chemical Reaction Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method for transmitting multiple signals through chemical reaction networks by adapting electrical engineering modulation and filtering techniques, enabling signal multiplexing and monitoring in chemical systems.

Contribution

It provides the first chemical implementations of classical electrical filters and demonstrates how to modulate and demodulate multiple signals within chemical reaction networks.

Findings

Chemical band-pass and low-pass filters implemented with differential equations

Multiple independent signals can be transmitted and isolated in chemical media

Chemical systems can be monitored for frequency-specific behavior

Abstract

Electrical engineering and molecular programming share many of the same mathematical foundations. In this paper, we show how to send multiple signals through a single pair of chemical species using modulation and demodulation techniques found in electrical engineering. Key to our construction, we provide chemical implementations of classical linear band-pass and low-pass filters with induced differential equations that are identical to their electrical engineering counterparts. We show how to modulate \emph{arbitrary} independent input signals with different carrier frequencies for transmission through a shared medium. Specific signals in the medium can then be isolated and demodulated using band-pass and low-pass filters. Such programmable chemical band-pass filters also offer a way to monitor chemical systems to verify that they are operating between a prescribed set of frequencies.