DNA code construction refers to the application of coding theory to the design of nucleic acid systems for the field of DNA–based computation.

Introduction

DNA sequences are known to appear in the form of double helices in living cells, in which one DNA strand is hybridized to its complementary strand through a series of hydrogen bonds. For the purpose of this entry, we shall focus on only oligonucleotides. DNA computing involves allowing synthetic oligonucleotide strands to hybridize in such a way as to perform computation. DNA computing requires that the self-assembly of the oligonucleotide strands happen in such a way that hybridization should occur in a manner compatible with the goals of computation.

The field of DNA computing was established in Leonard M. Adelman's seminal paper.^[1] His work is significant for a number of reasons:

It shows how one could use the highly parallel nature of computation performed by DNA to solve problems that are difficult or almost impossible to solve using the traditional methods.
It's an example of computation at a molecular level, on the lines of nanocomputing, and this potentially is a major advantage as far as the information density on storage media is considered, which can never be reached by the semiconductor industry.
It demonstrates unique aspects of DNA as a data structure.

This capability for massively parallel computation in DNA computing can be exploited in solving many computational problems on an enormously large scale such as cell-based computational systems for cancer diagnostics and treatment, and ultra-high density storage media.