{"id":12838,"date":"2012-11-26T14:55:22","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T14:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/biological-internet\/"},"modified":"2013-04-25T12:34:36","modified_gmt":"2013-04-25T12:34:36","slug":"biological-internet","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28998\/biological-internet-bi-fi","title":{"rendered":"Biological Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_biological_internet_mean\">What Does Biological Internet Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Biological Internet (Bi-Fi) is a breakthrough bioengineering field that centers on a M13 virus&#8217; ability to transmit messages between cells. As of late 2012, the Stanford University study was conducted by doctoral candidate, Monica Ortiz, and assistant bioengineering professor, Drew Endy, Ph.D.<br \/>\nOrtiz and Endy have harnessed a unique attribute of the non-lethal M13 virus &#8211; the ability to broadcast packaged DNA strands and basic biological information. Potentially, this may be applied to the human body as a type of communication network &#8211; hence the term, Biological Internet.<br \/>\nThe researchers&#8217; findings were published September 7, 2012, in the <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Journal of Biological Engineering.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_biological_internet\">Techopedia Explains Biological Internet<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The M13 virus is unique because it is non-lethal and simply imposes itself on the host cell. Thus, the virus has no adverse effects. To transmit DNA, the virus simply reproduces within the host cell, wraps DNA strands in proteins and sends out the packaged strands to infect other cells. Engineers can manipulate the DNA, thereby creating a communication channel for the transfer of information between cells. However, the M13 does not &quot;care&quot; what is transmitted. Thus, Bi-Fi is considered a wireless and biological information network.<br \/>\nBy using DNA as the medium of information storage, researchers can greatly increase the amount of data transmitted at a time, in contrast to other known methods, like using sugars or chemical signals.<br \/>\nThe largest DNA strand packaged by the M13 includes more than 40,000 base pairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Biological Internet Mean? Biological Internet (Bi-Fi) is a breakthrough bioengineering field that centers on a M13 virus&#8217; ability to transmit messages between cells. As of late 2012, the Stanford University study was conducted by doctoral candidate, Monica Ortiz, and assistant bioengineering professor, Drew Endy, Ph.D. Ortiz and Endy have harnessed a unique attribute [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[245,219,220],"class_list":["post-12838","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-internet","definitioncat-networks","definitioncat-wireless-and-mobile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Biological Internet (Bi-Fi)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Biological Internet and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biological Internet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Biological Internet and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28998\/biological-internet-bi-fi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-25T12:34:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28998\/biological-internet-bi-fi#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28998\/biological-internet-bi-fi\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Biological Internet\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-26T14:55:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-25T12:34:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28998\/biological-internet-bi-fi\"},\"wordCount\":244,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28998\/biological-internet-bi-fi#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28998\/biological-internet-bi-fi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/28998\/biological-internet-bi-fi\",\"name\":\"What is Biological Internet (Bi-Fi)? 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