Abstract:Cells are known as the basic structural and functioning units of living organisms, which preserve rich sources of intelligent of nature. The external membrane of a cell separates the interior of the cell from the outside environment, controlling the movement of substances in and out of the cell, while the internal membranes separate the cell into several functioning organisms that are associated with specific biological functions. In this way, cells can be understood as distributed parallel information processing devices. In this paper, we introduce cell-based computing, including the background, the basic structure and function of cells, and the state-of-the-art in cell-based computing. The field of cell-based computing is also called membrane computing. There are three main classes of computing models in this field: cell-like membrane computing model, tissue-like membrane computing model, and neuron-like membrane computing model. Membrane computing shows valuable applications in modeling biological systems, etc. With the development of biological technology, membrane computing models are implemented in Escherichia coli, etc., though the size is limited. We discuss the future of membrane computing including the potential applications in biology and medicine. Especially, we point out that membrane computing has potential advantages in the store of big data and massively parallel computing.