Turing was right: Two proteins fit decades-old prediction

[Tank]

Turing was right: Two proteins fit decades-old prediction

Today, Alan Turing is best known as the father of modern computer science, but in 1952 he sketched out a biological model in which two chemicals — an activator and an inhibitor — could interact to form the basis for everything from the color patterns of a butterfly's wings to the black and white stripes of a zebra.

It was an innovative hypothesis, made all the more impressive by the fact that it was postulated without the benefit of modern molecular biology — the double-helix structure of DNA wouldn't be discovered for another year.

Harvard research now shows that Nodal and Lefty — two proteins linked to the regulation of asymmetry in vertebrates and the development of precursor cells for internal organs — fit the model described by Turing six decades ago. In a paper published online in Science April 12, Alexander Schier, professor of molecular and cellular biology, and his collaborators Patrick Müller, Katherine Rogers, Ben Jordan, Joon Lee, Drew Robson, and Sharad Ramanathan demonstrate a key aspect of Turing's model: that the activator protein Nodal moves through tissue far more slowly than its inhibitor Lefty.

"That's one of the central predictions of the Turing model," Schier said. "So I think we can now say that Nodal and Lefty are a clear example of this model in vivo."

Schier's latest finding is the result of more than a decade of research into the Nodal/Lefty pairing. In a 2002 paper, his group described results that suggested the two proteins act as an activator/inhibitor pair, one of the key tenets of the model outlined by Turing. But it was the recent experiments on how the proteins move through tissue that clinched it...

The more one reads about Turing the more one is impressed by his genius and the more horrified one becomes that he was hounded to his death by homophobes and homophobic legislation. What would he have done if he'd lived and not also been held back by bigots and bastards? 

[OldGit]

He might have done great things or he might have burned out, having been so intense in his youth.

[Tank]

He might have done great things or he might have burned out, having been so intense in his youth.

Agreed. It's just a great shame he never got the chance.

[The Black Jester]

The more one reads about Turing the more one is impressed by his genius and the more horrified one becomes that he was hounded to his death by homophobes and homophobic legislation. What would he have done if he'd lived and not also been held back by bigots and bastards? 

The man was a universal genius, no question, in the end succumbing to petty minds.  I recently revisited his philosophical defense of artificial intelligence.  Given his more concrete contributions to humanity, it may seem silly to single out his work in what many perceive to be a dead discipline, but I always felt his philosophic contributions were under-appreciated. 

[xSilverPhinx]

Wow.